


Game or Reality

by aya_shoru



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: 21st century girls trying to survive skyrim, Gen, Math, falling into skyrim, kidnapped by dragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2019-07-01 18:43:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15779892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aya_shoru/pseuds/aya_shoru
Summary: Skyrim has gone from console, to PC, to VR, multiplayer, and now IVR. Immersive Virtual Reality, bringing the game to life in ways unreachable until now. Follow three players as they experience the game, and the strangeness that follows.





	1. Beginning

When IVR, Immersive Virtual Reality, finally came out it was huge. No longer were you having to hold a controller, or get tangled up in wires, or bump into walls or furniture. Now you could lay down, relax and allow your mind to roam through the virtual world. Then Skyrim was reconfigured and released for IVR, with the options of Single-player, Multi-player, or MMORPG. That is where our story starts, three friends getting together to play Multi-player Skyrim. Susan met up with Sharon and Meghan at their house, bringing her own IVR headset. Sharon was the only one who really played Skyrim, the other two had dabbled but hadn’t really gotten into it, but Sharon really wanted them to experience Skyrim in IVR.

They powered up the system, got comfortable, and started the calibration process. Physical attributes had been pre-recorded per headset the first time it was turned on, and were downloaded per game. They each created their own characters, Meghan a female Khajiit with the coloring and features of a Caracal, Susan a female Nord not so different than herself, and Sharon a female Bosmer also similar to her own self, experimenting could be saved for later games. Unbeknownst to them, there was a short in the IVR system, and when the house’s heater kicked on, it shorted out the system, delivering a devastating shock to the three friends.

~ ~ ~ ~

Sharon flinched, then screamed as suddenly it felt as though her whole body was on fire, like the one time when she had touched an electric fence, except so much worse. She heard answering screams from her friends and everything went blindingly white. When it felt like she was falling she opened her eyes to see a blue sky with clouds, her hair whipped her face and her eyes watered from the sting and from the cold air rushing past. 

As she spun through the air, she saw the ground below and screamed again. Suddenly she was hit from behind, something big wrapping around her, squeezing her too tightly, and smelling like something rotting and burned. Looking up she saw the scaled body of a green dragon, but she had no idea why a dragon was carrying her and her friends in its claws, this was not how Skyrim started. 

Sharon’s head was barely exposed in the dragon’s grasp, but she could hear someone screaming next to her, it sounded like Susan. Suddenly the dragon dove down, making her scream again, the beast flaring its wings when it got close to the and she was dropped, rolling through snow and frozen dirt until she slammed into something hard and she blacked out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Oh Shit!!!” Susan rolled across the ground, scraping her arms on frozen dirt and show, then slammed into Sharon. She spat out the snow and dirt in her mouth, turning to look up at the dragon that had dropped them, staying crouched low to the ground. The green beast roared and flew to the side, a smaller brown dragon swooping past, another screaming person in its clutches. The green dragon struck at the brown with its tail, and the smaller dragon dropped its burden just below the wide, open area in front of her.

Susan scrambled back, climbing over her friend until she was stopped by the stone wall, crouching in terror as the two dragons fought each other. With a great roar, the green dragon breathed fire, only to be met with ice from the other. The fire dragon darted down and latched onto the other’s tail with its teeth, with a strong jerk in the air, they both crashed to the ground, where they bit and bashed at each other. 

Susan curled down into a ball, flinching every time a dragon roared, or the ground shook from their fighting. She could smell blood as the fighting lengthened, and peaked past her arm when one of the dragons screamed, spotted the blood on the ground and ducked down again. The scent of burning was in the air and cold air whipped around her.

“I don’t like this game!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Meghan screamed when the dragon dropped her, arms pinwheeling in the air to try and grab hold of something. She landed in a pile of snow, stunning her for a moment and she started sliding down a hill. She slid into a tree trunk and latched on, huddling close to the trunk and letting the low branches hide her from view as she caught her breath and tried to orient herself. She looked back up the hill and saw the two dragons were now fighting, bashing each other with their wings, fighting with fire and ice, and snapping at any limb that got close, drawing blood with teeth and the lone claw on their wing joint.

For a second Meghan wondered where her friends were, if they were ok, or if they had gotten caught up in the dragon fight. A blast of heat and flame shot over her head, hitting the top of the tree she hid under and making it sizzle and pop, raining melted snow down on top of her as she scrambled back, flinching away from the cold wetness.

“Shit! Shit, shit, what the fucking hell?” Feeling the ground shake, she tried to bury herself deeper into the snow, and froze when a different noise caught her attention. Not turning her head, Meghan peeked out of the corner of her eye, where she saw something moving up the hill toward the fighting. It was white and blended in well with the snow, it grunted then roared, sounding something like a bear but not quite. It ran up the hill toward the fighting dragons and she got a better look at it.

The creature had white fur, long thick arms, and looked like an ugly albino gorilla. It charged up the hill, and started violently swinging its arms around, hitting the closest dragon which happened to be the brown one. She heard a few more similar cries from different directions, there had to be more of those things up there fighting the dragons.

Meghan started slowly sliding backwards, intending to move out of sight and get the hell out of there, when a scream caught her attention.

“What the fuck is that?” That was Susan, who had to be up there with the dragons and the gorillas. Meghan looked around, trying to see if there was a way she could go around and get Susan out of there, then ducked as a smoldering gorilla tumbled down past her. It got hung up on another corpse, and Meghan spotted a sword lying next to it. With a quick glance up the hill, Meghan darted across, jumped up over the bodies, and picked up the sword. There were two burned bodies lying one level below the fighting dragons, and they looked like they had been there a few days at least.

Looking around again she saw another slope, that curved around back of where the dragons were. A choked moaning cry came from the dragons and the ground shook as one of them crashed to the ground, writhing in its death throes before becoming still, the green dragon raising its head and roaring in triumph, then crying out in anger as the gorillas attacked it. Meghan slowly crept up the slope, keeping close watch on the fight, and spotted three gorillas rushing the last dragon, one got knocked away by a wing, roaring as it flew off the edge of a cliff.

“Get away you son-of-a-bitch! Argg!!” Susan popped up on the far side of the dragon, a sword in hand and brought it down on one of the gorillas, knocking it into the dragon, who snatched it up into its mouth, tossed its head back and forth, before letting go, sending the body flying, and into the trees. 

Meghan darted forward as the dragon collapsed to the ground, the last gorilla having cracked something in its neck with its powerful arms, and swung her sword like a bat at the last kneeling gorilla. Luckily the edge was leading, and the blade sunk into the creature’s neck, crunched into bone and the beast collapsed.

“Get away you freak!” Meghan backed away as Susan swung the sword in her direction.

“Whoa Susan, what the hell?”

“How do you know my name? Who are you?”

“It’s me Meghan.” Susan blinked and slowly lowered the sword.

“Oh, right, you look like a cat.” Now that everything had calmed down, she remembered that they had created their characters before everything got weird, but everything felt real, her heart was still pounding. “What the hell is going on? This doesn’t seem like the start of the game.” 

“Where is Sharon? She should know.”

“Oww, oh ow.” The voice came from behind Susan, by the weird stone wall, and they ran over to where their friend was starting to move around.

“Sharon! Are you ok?” Carefully they helped her sit up, kneeling next to her.

“My head really hurts.” Sharon blinked open her eyes, spotting all the bodies. “Whoa that’s a lot of Frost Trolls, wait, what happened?”

“We are playing Skyrim, is this how the game starts? It’s really rough.” Meghan turned to look at the dead monsters, Frost Trolls evidently, and spotted a tail behind her. It was reddish tan in color and she looked down at her arms, which were the same, like the Caracal she based her character on. Susan still looked like herself, mostly, though more fit, and taller? Sharon was also the same, though long pointed ears poked through her long brown hair, and her eyes were a more vibrant green.

“Yeah was this supposed to happen?” Susan looked around them. “Dragons catching us and a big fight?”

“No this is weird, this didn’t happen when I played on Single-player mode.” Sharon shivered and moved around slowly, all three of them were wearing sleeveless dirty and ragged shirts, pants that were held up by ropes, with their feet only wrapped in rags. “I feel wet, you couldn’t feel wet, cold, pain, hunger. The condition bars and icons are not popping up, or the menus.”

Meghan tried to pay attention, but she could feel her ears moving in her hair, and her tail thrashing around behind her. Birds were calling all around and she caught the strong sent of smoke. A thin pillar of black smoke was rising from the alley from below.

Suddenly Sharon was puking behind her, Meghan darted out of the way, feeling the fur along her back rise. Sharon looked miserable, eyes tearing up, and was swaying back and forth as she coughed. Meghan stood up, looking around.

“Let’s log out, this is a little too crazy.” Meghan raised her arms. “Main menu.”

Nothing happened. “Character menu. Log out. Options!” Nothing was happening, and Meghan’s tail was thrashing around in her agitation. 

“Is the game glitching?” Suddenly Susan gasped, looking pale. “Are we stuck in the game like Sword Art Online?”

“We can be safely disconnected though. It won’t kill us.” Sharon gagged a little. “Oh ew.”

“Maybe we should get out of here, somewhere safe so we don’t get attacked.” Meghan looked back at the smoke. “You are hurt and there are only two swords between us.”

“Why don’t we just let our characters die?”

“Because we will just respawn at the last auto save.” Sharon scuffed her foot in the snow, wiping off some vomit. “It won’t log us out of the game, and I don’t want to face those dragons again.”

“Ok. I think my sword is over here, I threw it.” Susan got up and moved off to the side of the stone wall. “Oh hey, there is a chest.”

Susan came back, sword in hand, and shirt gathered up to form a pouch of sorts. “Got some money, gems, and a book, might as well take it right?”

Meghan helped Sharon to her feet, holding her still as she leaned against her in a moment of dizziness. “Do you know where we are?”

“Usually we start off near Helgen, but let’s get further down the hill, where we can see more.” Slowly they moved past the corpses and down the snow-covered steps. They found a gap in the trees and Sharon looked around, they were up high, on top of a mountain giving them a good vantage point. “That looks like a marsh down there.”

“I see some smoke, maybe a town?”

“Yeah I see it too.” Susan stepped up next to her friends.

“I don’t see any smoke…Holy crap I can see clearly, without my glasses! What a view.” All three of them looked around the area. They had taken it for granted that they would have perfect sight in the game, and the view was awesome.

Sharon straightened up a little. “If there is a town down there, by a marsh, then it is probably…Morthal, I think.”

“Ok, let’s go.” They started down the hill, which had stone steps covered in snow, and Sharon shivered in the cold, but Susan and Meghan felt fine, Meghan attributed it to her new fur coat, Susan to the rush of adrenalin.

They had been walking downhill slowly for a while, and their feet were sore, being only wrapped in rags, so they stopped and sat on a boulder that was warm from the sun and not covered in snow. They were starting to get down into more trees and the snow wasn’t as deep. Here and there flowers were starting to bloom, mostly under trees but some even pushed through the snow.

“What might we run into? No mountain lions, right?” Susan jokingly referenced the last time they had gone on a hike, and they’d heard a mountain lion. Sharon chuckled but stayed leaning against Meghan for warmth, her eyes closed and rubbing her head gently, a light bruise already starting to form on her forehead.

“Only Saber cats, wolves, giant rats, giant spiders.” Meghan shuddered. “Bandits, vampires, trolls, dragons, skeletons…” Meghan hopped off the boulder, pulling Sharon to her feet.

“Ok let’s go, the faster we get to town, the faster we will be safe.” They all groaned in pain when they started walking again, their feet had swelled in the short time they were resting, and it was very painful, and their legs had stiffened up in the cold. 

“There are vampires in Morthal, or near it at least. If we get into town before dark and avoid the lady that looks like a barmaid, we shouldn’t have to worry about them. They are really hard to fight.” Sharon kept her head down, hair falling into her face to block the sunlight.

“Well at least we know.”

The scent of smoke had gotten stronger the further down the mountain they went, and Meghan was really starting to wish she couldn’t smell so well. Every little sound had her ears twitching in all directions, scents were intriguing and disgusting her, the tail was almost a nuisance, and her fur kept rubbing the wrong way under her clothes. Meghan’s ears twitched off in one direction and she froze, whole body tensing and her fur standing on end, making the whole group come to a halt.

“Guys, wait.” She focused her attention down the hill, the call of a wolf echoing through the trees. “There is a wolf up ahead.”

“Maybe it isn’t on the trail, only in the woods and we can walk on by?” Just in case though, Meghan and Susan took position in the front, swords ready, Sharon in the back, carrying what Susan had collected from the chest. The trail they were following met up with a wider road, and now they had to choose which direction to go. They headed to the right, toward the smoke, Meghan hissing slightly as the wolf cry got closer. 

Through the trees, they spotted the wolf, it was eating a goat laying on the side of the road. They slowly moved closer swords held out in front of them, waiting to see if the wolf would run off when faced with greater numbers or attack them.

The wolf watched them carefully, still chewing on a chunk of goat. As they got closer it looked up and growled and they stopped, Sharon stepping back so she could keep an eye on the wolf and not get in her friends’ way. The wolf snarled and started prowling toward them.

“Good dog. Stay, stay.” Sharon stammered as she backed away, leaving Meghan and Susan free to move around more. A breeze came up from behind her, strong enough to push her forward into her friends and rushing at the wolf, swirling around it. The wolf stopped approaching, sitting down in the middle of the road, its tail slowly wagging. “Ooh!”

“What? What did you do? What happened?” Meghan didn’t take her eyes off the wolf, ears laid back on her head.

“I forgot, Wood Elves can use Command Animal for a brief time!” Sharon pointed off the side of the road. “Go sit.”

The wolf got up and moved to the side of the road sitting down in the grass. “Let’s go before it wears off.” They tried to run down the road, but with such bad footwear the best they could do was a limping jog. Unfortunately, after a few minutes they couldn’t stand it anymore and moved off into the soft grass on the side, falling to lay or sit on the grass and get off their sore feet.

“Ow, ow, ow.” Susan looked down at her elven looking friend.

“How long does the Command last?” Sharon was laying on her side in the grass, Susan sitting on a stone wall along the road, and Meghan sat next to her, picking sharp rocks from her feet.

“60 seconds…oh, that is in real life.” Sharon rolled onto her back. “Three minutes in real life equals one hour here, so…uh, 20 minutes.” It was quiet for a moment then Susan started laughing.

“So, we didn’t have to run away?” Sharon grumbled back.

“I hate math. Numbers make my brain hurt.”

“What skills do we all have?” Meghan twitched her head as a fly buzzed past and swiped at it, just missing the insect.

“Khajiit can see well in the dark, and their claws do more damage in unarmed fighting.” Meghan looked down at her claws and smiled. She was going to be an awesome cat-person.

“Nords are more resistant to frost damage, so the weather probably isn’t bothering you.” Susan shook her head, and Sharon mock glared at her, still feeling cold herself. “They also have a Battle Cry that will scare enemies away for 30 seconds…uh 10 minutes. That and the Command Animal can only be used once per day, Wood Elves are also more resistance to diseases.”

“Diseases? What diseases are there? Vampirism? Lycanthropy?”

“Those and a few you could catch from the rats, wolves, and bears.” Meghan grimaced.

“Great…”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Finally, after what had to be over 2 hours of slow painful walking, they reached Morthal. There were a few people working in small crop fields, but most seemed to be milling around in the main part of town. When they reached it, they saw why, the smoldering remains of a building in the middle of town, with a few people digging around in the debris.

“What happened?” Susan tried to casually hold her great sword at her side, the guards were watching them carefully, but it was hard to do when she didn’t have a sheath for it. Meghan was having the same problem, and shuffled closer to her friends when one of the guards placed a hand on his sword. Sharon moved closer and whispered to them, looking around the small town.

“The house was burned down with a dude’s wife inside, next day the husband moved in with his new love, the vampire. Daughter also died in the fire.” Meghan hissed and looked around.

“What does the vampire look like?”

“I think she works at the Inn, she wears a revealing outfit, dark hair, very pretty for this town.” They all looked around but no one around them matched that description.

“You there.” They spun around in surprise, there was a man standing at the top of the staircase to the building next to them. “Come, the Jarl wishes to speak with you.”

Meghan and Susan turned to Sharon, who nodded, so they followed the man inside. The interior was open, with a large fire pit burning in the center, warming the whole room, which made Sharon sigh happily as she started to warm up. Meghan hissed and wrinkled her nose at the smell of unwashed bodies and stale alcohol. An old woman sat in a raised chair at the end of the hall and that is where the man led them.

“I am Idgrod Ravencrone, Jarl of Morthal. You are wondering why I called you here.” Sharon bowed to the Jarl, her friends mimicking her.

“Yes my Jarl, I am Sharon, this is Meghan and Susan, my best friends. What is it you wish of us?” Idgrod laughed.

“So polite for outsiders. I wished to speak to you. I foresaw your fall into Tamriel, from another world entirely, and the changes you three will make in this world.” Sharon froze and her eyes widened, this was not part of the game, Idgrod was completely off script and she had never heard of anyone coming from another world in the Elderscrolls universe. Another realm yes, world no. Were those the same thing?

“I see my words have troubled you. Perhaps after you have rested, and have had something to eat, we can speak some more.” Idgrod turned to the man who had led them inside. “Aslfur, get them something to eat and drink, I’ll talk to Jonna about giving them a room to stay in.”

Sharon stammered in confusion. “B-but my Jarl…” Idgrod smiled kindly at the elven girl.

“Not to worry my dear, eat, rest, and then we will talk more in depth.” She stood and walked passed them.

“If you would take a seat by the fire, I’ll bring you some food while you warm up.” Aslfur pointed to a bench and moved into a side room. Sharon spun to face her friends, shocked and confused.

“I don’t know what is going on, this isn’t supposed to happen.” Meghan sighed.

“Nothing we can do about it now, but might as well eat and get warm. And I need to pee.” All three of them laughed a little and moved to the bench, placing the things they had collected and the two swords off to the side. Sharon sat next to the fire, unwrapping the rags from around her feet, grimacing as she noticed a blister.

“Ugg, my head hurts, my feet hurt, I’m hungry, thirsty, tired. None of this we should be able to feel in IVR. We should have status bars that we see, or a journal we can open up and look at.”

“Don’t forget not feeling like we need to pee.” They chuckled again, but Sharon was still worried. Meghan’s ears twitched, and her head turned to face Aslfur as he brought out a tray with bowls and bread on it.

“We have mead, ale, and wine.” All of them grimaced a bit and Sharon put her foot down.

“Do you have water?” Aslfur shook his head.

“The well was contaminated in the fire, it will be two days before it’s fully cleaned out.”

“Oh.” Sharon sighed, she was tired and thirsty so decided to pick one, since it didn’t matter if they got some Status effects. “I’ll have mead then, thank you.”

Susan wanted wine, while Meghan also opted for mead, and asked where the privy was, after struggling to think what it would be called in old time Skyrim. Aslfur pointed toward the back of the hall where there was a closed door. Aslfur left the bottles with them and they dug into the stew, quickly finishing off the first bowl, Aslfur returning with more stew for them, silently taking the empty bowls. Sharon grimaced at the honey flavor of the mead but it wasn’t terrible, Susan and Meghan seemed happy with their drinks, and it did sate their thirst. One by one they visited the privy, Meghan gagged at the smell and made sure to get out as soon as possible, her eyes watering, all it was, was a wooden box over a hole in the ground. They had finished their second bowls of stew, wiping up the last bits with the bread, when Idgrod returned and walked over to them.

“There is a room at the inn for you. Return after you’ve rested, we’ll speak privately at dinner.” Sharon stood and bowed to her, still confused but willing to roll with it.

“We thank you for your kindness, but we can pay…” Idgrod raised a hand and dismissed her concerns.

“Let me do this, young ones. You will need what help you can get, so.” She looked them over. “You are my daughter’s size. I will get you some more clothes.”

“Could we get some pants, trousers, my Jarl?” Idgrod laughed, her voice cracking a little from her age.

“Yes, we can give you some more practical clothing. Follow me.” They followed the Jarl into a room, where they weren’t just outfitted with better, warmer clothing, but boots, hats, gloves, and cloaks for all of them, packs for their things, and sheaths for Meghan and Susan’s swords.

“Are you sure my Jarl. This seems to be a lot of effort for three strangers.” Again, Idgrod waved away her concerns.

“We will discuss my reasons more tonight.” She nodded to them and Sharon took that as dismissal. The three of them followed Aslfur to the door, where he pointed down the road.

“The Inn is that building there. I will come for you tonight for dinner.”

“Thank you Aslfur.” He nodded and went back inside. The three of them were quiet as they walked to the Inn. Jonna greeting them as showed them their room, and Sharon noticed the vampire wasn’t working in the Inn. They all sat on the large bed, Sharon between her two friends.

“So, I have no idea what is going on. This didn’t happen, nothing like this ever happened, the timing is off…”

“It’s ok. We’ll figure this out.” Meghan frowned, she had noticed her voice being off but had hoped things would go back to normal, they hadn’t. Now her voice had a growl to it, and she lisped her s’s.

“How long will we be here before we get disconnected? You sure we won’t get brain damage?” Susan was very nervous about that part, they had all seen Sword Art Online, where the players were trapped in a video game with the chance of being killed if they were disconnected from the game.

“No, the developers made sure nothing like that would happen, we aren’t that deeply connected, like if someone tripped over us or shook us, we’d notice. We won’t get any brain damage, they demonstrated it when they first introduced the product, shutting the power off while someone was wearing it, and constantly giving medical exams and updates on his condition. Two years and no problems, only thing he complained about was a headache or migraine from the disconnect and feeling like he was abruptly woken up.”

“If mom turns off the game for dinner, that would be around 7:00, we started at 10:00, that is 9 hours, plus or minus a few hours, uh.” Meghan stopped and tried to figure out the math.

“3 minutes for an hour.” Meghan flopped back onto the bed, frowning at the feeling of fur moving and getting caught on her clothes. “So, times 9 and 60, divide by 60 then 24, uh a bit more than a week. A week before we get disconnected?” They all shared shocked looks, that was a long time to be stuck.

“I’m so sorry for getting you guys stuck here, you don’t even like Skyrim that much.” Susan shoulder bumped her friend.

“Better to be stuck here with friends, then stuck alone. We could treat it as a vacation. Or an adventure! A free vacation without the planes and cars.” Sharon smiled, eyes tearing up a bit, and pulled her friends into a hug.

“You guys are my best friends, you know that, right?” Slowly they pulled away, all eyes slightly damp. “Well, I guess we should listen to the Jarl and get some sleep, I know I could use some.”

Shoes, swords and packs were piled onto the floor, Susan and Sharon wrapped up in their cloaks since there were no blankets, but Meghan was warm enough without. They made sure the swords were nearby just in case and tried to get some sleep.


	2. What the Hell Are We Doing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is gonna take longer for updates, most of my notes for this melted when they got wet (yes I had 60+ pages handwritten) so it is gonna take me a bit to go through them and rewrite everything, then get it onto the computer. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter 2 - What the Hell Are We Doing?

Susan and Meghan were already awake when Aslfur came to get them that evening, none of them having slept well. They woke Sharon, who stared at them sadly, obviously wishing it had all been a dream. She quickly finger-combed her hair and put it into a tail to try and tame it, before they all followed Aslfur out of the Inn, the sun having just set, with clouds in the sky, with the shadows of the buildings stretching across the main road. Smoke was coming from the chimneys and soft light lit the windows.

Sharon noticed the vampire first, walking towards them from the raised walkway that bordered the small cove in the middle of town to their left. Carefully she nudged her friends, gesturing carefully towards her then made sure not to look at the approaching woman. Her friends glanced at her, then carefully looked around, not quite sure what was going on. When the woman drew even with them, she stopped and smiled at them all, making the hairs on the back of their necks rise, and Meghan felt her tail start to thrash.

“My, my, Aslfur. Who are your friends? It’s not often we see strangers in Morthal.” Aslfur didn’t stop walking so the girls didn’t either, the man not even looking in the direction of the scantily clad woman. Sharon thought she didn’t care much about hiding her true nature, if she wasn’t dressing to match the cold weather, the cloak over her outfit not enough to block the cold wind, even if there was no snow on the ground.

“Guests of the Jarl.” They were passed the woman before she could respond, and soon walking up the steps of the Jarl’s home in a tense silence, Meghan and Susan glanced back at the woman, to see her watching them. Inside, there was a long table set up near the fire, with Idgrod at the head, places already set and food waiting.

“Thank you, Aslfur. Please, have something to eat and then we will talk.” Aslfur took the place on Idgrod’s right, so Sharon took the one on the left, after a questioning glance at the Jarl. Susan and Meghan next to her. The table had a whole roasted animal as the center piece, possibly a goat, pies and loaves of bread. One large platter was heaped with fish filets, there was a bowl of apples, a few wheels of cheese, and bottles of mead and wine.

There were small daggers at their plates, and they copied Idgrod as she cut sections of meat and cheese, placed them on her plate, poured herself some wine to drink, then used the knife as a fork to eat with.

The food was good, the meat tender and juicy, with a nice smoky crust. The cheese was sharp, making Sharon think of a mix of cheddar and parmesan, and went well with the apples or the bread. The fish was flakey with no bones, and almost dripping in butter, and Meghan was surprised how much she enjoyed it, since she seldom ate fish, the only trouble was where to wipe their hands, there were no napkins. Susan seemed to enjoy everything and ate quite a bit more than either of her friends, matching their host’s appetite. Must be a Nord thing. 

“Now, I believe you have some questions?” Sharon looked to her friends, not really sure how to proceed from there, it was like trying to pick a place to eat, no one was taking the lead, so Meghan took the initiative and asked first.

“Why did you think we fell from another world?” Idgrod took a sip of her wine.

“I saw the three of you in a vision. You were all in a strange place, I assume was your home, with oddities all around you, and wearing strange clothing, with strange helmets on your heads. All at once it looked as though you were struck by lightning, flashes of light, smoke coming from the walls and your chairs, then it was as though I was blown back. I saw two dragons fighting in the sky, then snatching you as you fell.” Susan whimpered and slumped on the bench.

“It is just like Sword Art Online.” Sharon lifted a hand to her friend’s shoulder, looking confused and upset.

“I’m sorry, but maybe we will still be disconnected from the game after a week. It’s not like there is an evil overlord trying to kill us all in here.”

“Did you see anything else?” Meghan leaned forward to look around her friends.

“I saw another vision, of one with a dragon soul, you three standing at his side.” Sharon sighed a bit in relief, but Idgrod continued. “I saw your souls leave your world and join Atherius, how you came to be alive in this world, with the bodies you now have, I did not see.”

They all sat silently, Sharon in shock from the complete divergence from the story line, Meghan and Susan trying to figure out what was going on as first-time players of Skyrim. There really was no way for Idgrod to know about the IVR headsets or how they would malfunction.

“So, you think we are dead?” Idgrod smiled sadly at them, placing a consoling hand on Sharon’s shoulder, until she pulled back.

“You may have died in your world, but you are very much alive in this one.” They weren’t sure if they should believe her, they could play it safe for the next week, to see if they will get disconnected and ejected from the game. Though just in case Idgrod was right, they would have to make sure not to get killed.

“You said the man with the dragon’s soul, you mean the Dragonborn?” Idgrod looked surprised as she turned to Sharon.

“You know of the Dragonborn?” Sharon chewed her lip, debating on how much to tell, and how to tell it.

“I have heard of the legends yes, this place is just stories where we are from, we have no dragons, so no Dragonborn.” Sharon turned to her friends, but they just shrugged. Idgrod leaned forward in her seat, resting an arm on the table, even Aslfur looked interested.

“Stories of the Dragonborn, but no dragons?”

“I can’t tell you much about the stories, because they might not actually be true—”

“Yes dear, I understand.” Idgrod leaned back into her chair, looking over the three women before her with new interest. “All the better for you three if you do have some knowledge to help you along your way. The Dragonborn will be traveling here. When I do not know, but it seems best if you wait here for him, instead of traveling all around Skyrim.”

“Do you know why we were with the Dragonborn?” Sharon picked at the remains of the bread on her plate. “Were we helping him, fighting him? What were we wearing?”

Idgrod chuckled. “I do not know why, and you were all wearing armor, as he was.” Sharon turned to her friends, who now looked at the weapons they had with them. Susan turned to the Jarl, worry crossing her face.

“We don’t know how to use these weapons, except swinging wildly, and we can’t do magic.” Meghan joined in, her gravelly voice still strange to them.

“Yeah, we don’t have any of that back home, and no magic at all.” Idgrod nodded.

“You can receive training from the guards, though it will not be for free.”

“What if we traded training for information?” Idgrod looked them over curiously.

“And what kind of information would you have, considering your situation?”

“You have a vampire in your town.” The hall fell silent and everyone turned to look at Sharon in shock and surprise. Idgrod frowned at the elven girl.

“What?” Sharon took a steadying breath.

“There is a vampire in your town. I saw her as we left the Inn, so I am assuming some things are just like the stories.” Idgrod frowned.

“You will need proof to back up your claim.” Sharon nodded, her hands shaking from nerves.

“I know where to find it. You will just need to keep her busy at the Inn, and her husband at the mill.” Idgrod’s eyes narrowed.

“Who do you speak of?”

“I don’t remember their names, but he just lost his wife and child in a fire, then married the vampire.” Aslfur jolted in his seat and turned to his wife.

“She is speaking of—” Idgrod held up a hand, cutting off her husband.

“I want to see this proof of yours, unfortunately you will have to provide the distractions, I won’t have my men running around after nothing.” Sharon frowned at the Jarl, true it was hard to believe, and if the vampire had started to enthrall the town, the guards most likely would be of no help.

“Sharon, what is going on?” The elf turned to look at her Khajiit friend and lowered her voice.

“We may be going up against a vampire. Are you guys ok with that?”

“Not really no.” Susan looked around as Idgrod stood and left. “She was all eager to help us earlier, what gives?”

“I just accused one of her townspeople of being a vampire, and I guess she didn’t know about it. So, to get rid of this threat, I need to prove to her the chick is a vampire. I’m sorry for jumping us into this, but it is really important we get it taken care of, if we are playing the game or especially if we are here for real.” Meghan groaned and dropped her head on the table.

“We aren’t going to fight her, are we?” Sharon shook her head and looked around the mostly empty hall, before turning back to her friends.

“No, I will need to have someone keep her busy at the Inn, she works there, and somehow get her husband out of the house, so I can sneak in and get the proof.”

“What happens if you get caught?” Susan looked worried. Sharon shrugged a bit.

“Get thrown in jail I think, then pay a fine. I hope it doesn’t come to that though, I think she has most of the town enthralled, no one wants to think that she is a vampire, they may try and protect her too.” Meghan stiffened and turned to face a man who had moved up to stand next to the Jarl’s throne, watching them carefully.

“Come on, let’s get back to our room.” They stood and hurried to the door, only to be startled when Aslfur stepped out from the shadows.

“Are you sure Alva is a vampire?” Sharon nodded, standing close to her friends. “Then I will distract Hroggar for you, where is the proof you need?”

“Inside their house.” Aslfur sighed and dug into a pouch on his belt.

“Then you will need these to get inside.” He held out some lockpicks.

Sharon looked at Idgrod’s husband in surprise, and slowly reached out to accept the lockpicks. “Oh, thank you. Wait, you believe me?”

“You can’t spend time in this family and not have something strange about you. If what you say is true, then she has most likely started enchanting people, something I seem to have some immunity to.” Sharon sighed in relief.

“I was hoping to exchange this information for weapons training. Even if we get rid of Alva, I still want us to be able to defend ourselves.” Aslfur nodded curtly.

“I can arrange that. Alva is most likely still working right now, and I can summon Hroggar to the guardhouse to ask some questions about the fire. Do you think you can do it tonight?” Sharon’s eyes widened, and she turned to her friends, who were also surprised, before turning back to Aslfur.

“Now? Are you sure? Should we plan it out more? She will be stronger at night.”

“Do you think you can keep this secret from Alva long enough? What if she decides three strangers are the perfect new blood source?” Sharon shuddered and stepped back towards her friends.

“Ok, tonight it is. I will hang out by the blacksmith until I see Hroggar leave the house, then I’ll try and get in.” She turned to her friends. “I will need you guys to keep her busy in the Inn, order drinks, food, ask questions about the town, just keep her from leaving. If she does leave before I get back, step outside and start calling Marco, Polo, like you are looking for a dog, make it loud enough for me to hear.”

“I’m stabbing her if she tries to bite me.” They all looked at Meghan in surprise. “I did not possibly die and come back, only to become forever undead, ok?”

“Fair enough. Oh.” Sharon turned back to Aslfur. “The coins here are not what we used, what is each called and what are they worth?”

The man stared a moment in surprise but pulled a few coins from his purse to show them. “They are called septims or gold coins. You can buy a meal for a few septims, a steel sword is ususally aroubd 100 septims.” They all relaxed in relief, that seemed simple enough, and there had been quite a few gold septims from the chest.

“Ok, then I guess you guys just order food and drink until I am done.” She turned to Aslfur. “Will that work?”

“It should be enough to work, you should have a basket of something as an excuse, in case the guards start to ask questions.” Aslfur walked into a room and came back with said basket. Inside was an apple, a wedge of cheese, a hat and some gloves. Sharon took the basket and let out a shaky breath, feeling her stomach flip with nerves, time to sneak into a vampire’s house, at night.


	3. Vampires

Chapter 3 – Vampires

Meghan and Susan decided the best way to keep Alva busy, was to sample all the brews the Inn had. So, they picked a table furthest from the Inn keeper to keep Alva as their server, and ordered some wine, with cheese and bread. Alva brought it to them, Meghan’s tail thrashing about nervously.

“Here you go, is there anything else you need?” Meghan nodded as she looked at the bottle of wine.

“We are new here, and all these drinks are different to what we have at home. We would like to order a bottle of each one you have, if it’s not too much trouble.” Alva smiled slowly, probably thinking about the bill and hopefully not how vulnerable they would be drunk.

“Of course, we have two types of wine, an ale and two meads, I’ll be right back with them.”

“Thank you.” Susan watched the woman leave and shuddered a bit. Alva returned with the promised drinks and explained as she set them out.

“This one is the ale, decent flavor, but not very strong. The wine you already have is a nice grape, but not as strong in alcohol or flavor as the Alto wine. The two meads are Honningbrew, and Blackbriar, I’ll let those be a surprise.” After Alva left with their coins, Meghan took the first sip of the wine, and grimaced.

“Oh, this is nasty. Tastes like bad grape juice.” Susan took a sip as well, smacking her lips at the tart flavor.

“Tastes like it isn’t old enough.” They both ate some bread to get the flavor out of their mouth. The Alto wine was the same but tasted more like the wine they were used to. The ale made them think of a flat beer but had a strong aftertaste that wasn’t unpleasant. It was when they reached the meads that they started to enjoy themselves.

“Oh, the Blackbriar isn’t bad, tastes kinda like blackberries…ohhh now I get it.” Meghan snickered at Susan and took a sip of her Honningbrew Mead.

“Mmm, honey, swap.” They did so and decided that Meghan liked the blackberry mead the most, as did Susan, but the honey mead was a close second.

“Do you think Sharon will like these?” Meghan shrugged, looking around the candle lit Inn, the center fire just some glowing coals.

“It’s possible she will try and drink water as often as she can, you know she doesn’t drink. But if she ever does, she will like the meads the best, the wine is bleck, and the ale tastes like boring beer.” The Khajiit looked up and caught Alva’s attention. “Hey, could we get three more bottles of the Blackbriar mead? And some more bread and cheese.”

“Do you think she is done running her errand?” Meghan slowly relaxed, for a second, she thought Susan was going to say something that Alva could hear, but she cleverly worked around it.

“Hope so, she is missing out on this mead, and the bread.” Susan nodded then lowered her voice, leaning closer to her Khajiit friend.

“Notice how we are planning for things to go wrong, like we’ll be here permanently? You think we actually…ended up here?” 

“I don’t know, you and I don’t really believe in a higher power like Sharon does, or at least not a singular one, perhaps this is possible.” They slowly went through their two bottles, saving the third for Sharon, and watched the door. Much to their surprise and relief, Sharon walked in through the door, a basket hanging from one arm.

“Hey! You’re back. You need to try this mead, its yummy.” Sharon gave them a strained smile and sat down next to them.

“So, um, who wants to go talk to a ghost?” They stared at their elf friend.

“What?”

“The Jarl wants me to investigate the fire that burned down the house over here, and when I went, I saw a ghost. Can you come with me? It’s dark out.” They glanced at each other, then at their friend. “Then we can look for Marco and Polo outside.”

“Fine.” Meghan finished off her mead in two gulps, left the septims they owed on the table, and pulled at Susan. “Come on, let’s help the scaredy-cat.”

“You’re the cat.” Meghan ignored her friend’s mumble and they walked outside, heading towards the burned building.

“What’s really going on? And what is with the Marco Polo stuff?” Susan asked, looking around the town, but nothing looked amiss.

“Well, the Marco Polo stuff is something Meghan and I started up, when we were playing around and had what if we fell into another world scenarios, if we looked like different people, or were separated, we would call out Marco, the other would respond Polo.” Susan stared at her two friends.

“You guys are paranoid.”

“We were bored, and it seemed funny at the time. Worked well for our writing workshops too.” Meghan shrugged. It was fun, and helped them develop their character portrayals, since they had to pretend to be other characters for a while and get into their heads. 

“It works well as an excuse to talk privately though, like codes words. Either way, I needed you to get out of the Inn, in case Alva tries anything. Also, Idgrod thinks now would be a perfect time to get us out of the way as she takes care of Alva, and Hroggar if need be.”

“So, you broke in?” Meghan asked with a smile, but Sharon shook her head.

“No, I knocked on the door and when no one answered I opened the door. I guess Hroggar left the door unlocked. I was in and out in like 10 seconds, and my heart was beating so hard.” Susan sighed in relief then something caught her eye. Not breathing she started tugging on her friends’ sleeves.

“Guys, there is a ghost, standing over there.”

They all turned to look and spotted the pale blue/white form standing in the old doorway of the burned home, quite visible in the darkness. When the figure saw them looking, it darted away behind a wall.

“Well, I guess there is no time like the present.” Carefully they walked down the raised walk, night having fallen, and peered around the charred wall at the glowing figure in the corner.

“Who are you?” It had the voice of a young girl and they grimaced.

“I’m Sharon, who are you?”

“My name is Helgi, are you an elf?” Sharon smiled.

“Yes, I am, and my friend Meghan is a Khajiit, and Susan is a Nord.” There was a hint of a smile on Helgi’s face.

“Oh wow. I’ve never met an elf or a Khajiit before, the caravans never stop here.” Susan looked around the dark burned husk.

“Helgi, what happened here?” The little ghost girl seemed to droop.

“Oh, there was a fire. I woke up from the smoke and hid.” The little head popped up. “Do you want to play with me? If you find me, I’ll tell you, but you will have to find me first.”

The girl vanished, and Meghan groaned. “I hate hide-n-seek in games.”

“Don’t worry, I know where she is, and she won’t run off, though we will have to fight a vampire, so we should bring a guard.” Meghan narrowed her eyes as she looked at Sharon.

“A vampire? Not Alva? How many vampires are there here?”

“Um, a coven?” Meghan groaned.

“That’s it. I’m getting my sword.” Susan quickly followed her, then followed Sharon to one of the guards standing by the Jarl’s longhouse, holding a torch.

“Um, is it possible to get someone to come with us? We are investigating the burned house and don’t know the way to the cemetery.” The guard stared at Sharon, then sighed.

“It’s almost the end of my shift anyway, come along.” He led the way passed the Inn, to a dirt trail that led along the river. Meghan was on high alert, ears twitching back and forth from noises she could hear in the dark, and surprisingly enough, could see quite well even without the torch.

They climbed a small hill, and came across headstones, and a grave that had been dug up. The guard rushed forward. “What? Who did this?”

“Stay away, she is mine!” A woman dressed in dark clothing came out from the mist, axe at the ready and one hand glowing red.

“Halt vampire!” The woman growled at the man and ran at him.

“Scatter!” The three friends moved in different directions, Sharon back down the hill since she was still weaponless, Susan to the side until she stood in front of the small casket, while Meghan ran forward to help the guard. With a shout, he brought his sword down and the woman barely blocked with her axe, he pushed, and she was knocked back.

“How dare you keep me from what is mine.” The woman stretched out her hand toward the guard, and a red light started being pulled from him, causing him to cry out and stagger back. “You will die for interf—”

Suddenly she was knocked forward, crying out in pain, blood striking the ground. Meghan had snuck around the vampire and landed a blow on her back. Susan charged forward and swung her greatsword, catching the surprised vampire in the chest, knocking her to the ground. The guard finished her off by putting his sword through her, pinning her to the snow-covered dirt.

“You did it.” Surprised, all four of them turned to the grave, where ghost Helgi was standing. “Laelette was told to burn mommy and me, but she didn’t want to. She bit my neck, and I didn’t fell hot anymore, but I couldn’t go with her, I’m all burned up. I’m tired, I’m going to sleep for a while now.”

When Helgi vanished, the guard knelt next to the vampire and turned her head to see her face. “It is Laelette, the girl speaks the truth, and she is a vampire, we must dispose of the body properly, lest others become infected.” The guard turned to the three. “Report back to the Jarl and get yourselves cleaned up so you don’t turn.”

Sharon picked up the fallen torch and the three hurried down the hill, Sharon gagging a bit at the sight of the blood, stopping to lean against the back of the Inn. “Oh my gosh, I can smell it. I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“Come on, the sooner we tell the Jarl, the sooner we are inside away from any more vampires.” Meghan still had her bloodied blade out, tail lashing around her, and watching the foggy woods carefully. 

“Anyone else freaking out?” Susan held her blade with one hand, watching the blood drip off onto the snow, her face was pale, and she was tense, like she was seconds away from bolting. “This is way too intense.”

It took a moment for Sharon to step away from the building, stepping slowly as though she was dizzy, and they cleaned off the vampire blood from their swords in the snow. They jogged to the Jarl’s hall, and quickly went inside, standing next to the center fire for a moment to warm up and gather themselves.

“What did you find?” Aslfur approached them, a frown on his face as usual. Sharon glanced at him, then around the hall, not spotting the Jarl.

“Laelette attacked us when we went to Helgi’s grave. Turns out she was also a vampire, one of the guards is taking care of the body.”

“Well, everything you have said is true then.” Jarl Idgrod stepped out from another room, walking towards them, Sharon turned to glare at the flames. “Aslfur was right, I should have taken the threat more seriously. Rest, and we will speak more on the vampires in the morning.”

“I am not going back to the Inn, Alva works there.” Meghan glared at the older woman.

“We went to arrest her at the Inn when you were investigating the burned house, but she was no longer there.” Aslfur glanced at this wife. “She was spotted going into her house, and when Hroggar resisted the guards, they were both killed.”

Sharon felt herself relax, and Susan sighed in relief. “Ok, back to the Inn it is then.”

Sharon gave a thankful nod to Aslfur, and led the group back to the Inn, where they quickly cleaned off the blood. They stumbled into their room, taking off their cloaks to act as blankets. Meghan curled up in the center, while Sharon took the right, laying on her right, Susan also facing the room. All three of them had trouble sleeping that night.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meghan tossed and turned, she had been awoken by the sound of Sharon’s crying, the shuddering inhales and exhales as she tried to stay quiet. The other girl eventually fell back asleep, but Meghan was finding it difficult. She rolled over onto her side, facing away from Susan and frowned at Sharon’s back. She growled in frustration, then almost jumped when she felt fingers run along her skull. Susan was petting her! She tried to feel offended, but it was soothing. A gentle rumble started in her chest, and she closed her eyes, falling back asleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There was an obvious change in the town the next morning, people were walking around with a purpose, instead of shuffling around in a daze. More were out doing chores and running errands, greeting each other and smiling, even with the cloudy skies.

They sat down for breakfast, and Meghan was struggling to straighten her fur from where it had snarled from not getting brushed while it was wet. She looked over at her friends and winced.

“We really need to invest in a brush, we look terrible.” Sharon groaned at the reminder, and felt at her slept-on braid, it came loose in places and hair hung behind her ears.

“Definitely, and soap, I really don’t want to think of what is also sleeping in the bed.” Meghan grimaced in sympathy. Being a Khajiit gave her an enhanced sense of smell. She could smell the other towns people, and obviously hygiene was not high in priority. Jonna came over to them, to see what they wanted for breakfast, Sharon picked porridge, which she sliced apple into, while Meghan and Susan opted for cheese, bread, and apples, with warmed cider to drink. 

“You girls look like you had a rough night.” Sharon looked up at the Innkeeper.

“I think we all need a good bath, and some way to comb out our hair.” Jonna looked them over for a second.

“After your meal, come to the back, I’ll have a bath drawn for you three.” They looked at her in shock.

“What, really? Oh, thank you so much but, why?” Jonna smiled.

“Obviously you three have had a rough couple of days. I saw you come into town, and know the Jarl is helping you. She helped my brother and I too when we first came here, so I decided I would return the favor.”

“Thank you. If you need us to, we can chop some wood for you in return.” Sharon wasn’t sure if her friends agreed with her, but she would be willing to chop wood in return for a hot bath, and to not think about what had happened to them.

“We are supposed to meet with the Jarl today.” Meghan desperately wanted a bath as well, but she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to make the Jarl wait.

“All the more reason for you girls to clean up, and it will make you feel better.” Jonna headed into a back room to ready the bath, and they started in on their breakfast. It was nice to get something warm in their stomachs and be full. Susan placed her bread and cheese next to the fire and melted it slightly before trying it, smiling as the cheese stretched away. 

Sharon led the way through the door Jonna had disappeared through and they saw her setting some clothes down on a stool next to a good-sized wooden barrel like tub filled with water.

“Oh, you don’t need to give us clothes too.” Sharon started to feel like they were going to owe the whole town sooner or later, information on vampires or not.

“These are just things that have been forgotten by visitors over the years, don’t think I didn’t notice how little you came here with, you can keep these.” Jonna also set down a brush next to the cake of soap, which got Sharon thinking.

“Do you have spare soap? Do you need help making soap?” Maybe if she traded ingredients and chopping wood, then they could get soap. Jonna laughed.

“How about you girls clean up and we’ll discuss soaps later. You will have to haul more water yourself if you need it, just heat it in that big caldron there and you will have warm water.”

“Thank you Jonna, if someone from the Jarl shows up, could you tell them we can meet with them later today, once we are cleaned up?” The Innkeeper nodded and closed the door behind her. After a bit of debating, they all decided to fill a bucket and scrub down first, then rinse in the tub. Meghan was voted to go last, since her fur would get everywhere. 

After the soak, they would dry off and sit next to the fireplace, brushing out their hair with the brush Jonna had left them. Susan and Sharon rested next to the fireplace in Jonna’s room, clean and groomed, wearing the clean clothes left for them in various stages of fit, while Meghan rubbed her fur dry, and brushed her hair. Aslfur had stopped by earlier, just as Susan was in the middle of her rinse, requesting their presence, Sharon had told him no. 

When he persisted, stating they needed their knowledge of Morvarth’s lair, Sharon had grabbed some unused paper, quill and ink, and drawn a rough map, listing some general numbers of vampires, thralls, and spiders, and sent him on his way, telling him to come back later, all while wrapped in the new clothing and wet hair dripping. 

“I’m just going to bring up the elephant in the room.” Susan looked at her two friends. “I know your beliefs won’t let you believe this, but I think they Jarl was right. We died and somehow ended up in another realm.”

Meghan glanced at her from the other side of the fireplace, and Sharon finished off her braid. “I think you’re right.”

Meghan looked at Sharon in surprise. Out of the three of them, Sharon was the only one who was religious. For her to believe they were in a video game world made real, meant the foundation of her beliefs had been rocked, perhaps completely destroyed.

“You think we are stuck in a fictional game world?” Sharon looked over at Meghan.

“I’ve never had dreams that seemed so realistic, where I can smell, touch, taste as if I was awake. Needed to use the bathroom, feeling hunger and pain, all of that wasn’t part of the game either. I don’t know how much you paid attention when you were washing, but…” Her friends nodded, they had noticed how washing felt just like washing in real life, though Meghan wasn’t used to all the fur.

“We will really have to be careful, this country is suffering from a civil war, and a vengeful God that is on the warpath. Demi-god. Something.” Susan and Meghan glanced at each other, then back to their elven friend.

“So, what do we need to do? Tell us, you know the most about this world.” Sharon didn’t answer for a few moments, watching the flames eat at the logs in the fire.

“We need to earn money. This is a rather safe and stable place, so we can stay if we want, though this Hold is not my favorite. Jarl Idgrod is on the side of the Imperials, which is okay, except for the Thalmor, but they only ban the worship of Talos. The Stormcloaks are the opposition, a bunch of Nords that want to worship Talos, and all non-Nords out of Skyrim. Meghan and I will have trouble in Windhelm, and Meghan might have trouble entering most cities.” Sharon sat back in the wooden chair she sat on. “Ugg, there is so much crap happening. At least Windhelm is practically on the other side of the country, oh, and has a serial killer in it.”

Meghan sighed. “Is there any town we could go to, where we wouldn’t have to deal with vampires or killers?”

Sharon was quiet as she thought, a frown crossing her face. The other two getting more and more worried the longer she thought.

“Um, Falkreath? But they have that werewolf in their jail. Winterhold, but that is practically a ghost town who hate anyone who even looks like they might do magic, and there is a Thalmor agent at the college, who activates an ancient magic ball thing. Definitely not Markarth, more Thalmor, and a cannibal, and the Silverbloods might throw us in jail or kill us, Riften you have to worry about being robbed every two seconds. Whiterun is nice, though there will be a big battle between the Stormcloaks and Imperials there, but we could leave before that.”

“So, you’re saying we are screwed where ever we go.” Sharon thought for a moment.

“Pretty much, yeah. Unless we pick a small village like Rorikstead or Iverstead, but then we couldn’t sell things there, and would only have farming to do.”

“So, for the moment, staying here is the safest bet.” Meghan stretched out her leg, looking at the dun fur that covered it.

“For now. The Dragonborn is out and about according to Jarl Idgrod, and who knows what he will do, join the Stormcloaks, the Imperials, stay neutral? Is he a Nord, or elf, or other, mage, fighter, thief, assassin?” Sharon groaned again. “Dang it, the Dark Brotherhood.”

Meghan and Susan sighed. Why couldn’t they have gotten stuck in Harvest Moon?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They decided to just hang out in their room and wait, since it was still too early for lunch. Jonna came to them around midmorning fortunately, they weren’t resting long when Aslfur entered the Inn.

“If you three are ready, Jarl Idgrod wishes to speak to you.” They followed Aslfur back to the Jarl’s home. Idgrod was sitting on her throne, and there were several guardsmen standing around, their armor gleaming in the torchlight and their green painted shields fresh and new looking. Sharon side eyed everyone, but it didn’t look like they were going to arrest them.

“I would like to thank you three, because of your warning about Alva, we discovered a plot to attack the town by the vampires that are holed up in a cave nearby.” Idgrod looked them over, and Sharon glanced over at the guards again, just to avoid the woman’s gaze. “I will be sending the guards to take care of the vampires in the cave, Morthal and its people owe you a great debt. As my right as Jarl, I bestow on you Alva’s old home, and all that it contains, I also declare you three citizens of Morthal.”

Sharon looked to her friends in shock, then turned to the Jarl with a smile. “Thank you so much Jarl Idgrod, this is an honor indeed. You have our thanks.”

Aslfur gestured to the Captain. “Captain Hrolth will also give you three weapons training, until you can defend yourselves. Just come to him or me when you want training.”

“Oh, thank god.” Meghan muttered, relaxing a bit at the thought that they weren’t going to be completely helpless in this strange world.

“Now, if you will excuse me, I have a raid to plan with the captain. Aslfur.” The Jarl stood and went off to a side room, the guards following her, and Aslfur stepped forward, handing Sharon a key.

“This is the key to your new home. I made sure the guards removed anything related to vampires from the property.” Sharon accepted the key, smiling at the weight of the iron key in her hand.

“Thank you, Aslfur. Um, you said that you had to kill Alva and her husband, they wouldn’t happen to have been inside the house?” Aslfur frowned a bit.

“They were both killed in the cellar, and the guardsman cleaned up the mess, you won’t have to worry about getting infected.” Susan smiled in relief, she didn’t want to become a vampire if this was to be their life, and she also didn’t want to clean up a mess someone else had made.

“It is good to have a place to live, we weren’t really sure what we were going to do living out of the Inn. This gives us a chance to start our own lives.” Aslfur nodded and smiled slightly.

“I am glad that you were willing to help us, and my wife was eager to help you in return. Welcome to Morthal.”

“Speaking of making a start, is there any work that needs to be done? Or should we go around and ask the shop keepers?” Aslfur frowned as he thought.

“You are perhaps better off asking around town yourself, anything that I have needs someone with more experience.” They thanked him once again and quickly walked out, eager to see what it was they had gotten.

“So, where is our new house?” Susan looked around the town, glad to be outside again. Sharon pointed in front of them, smiling and feeling a bit giddy.

“It’s the house right next to the barracks, before the blacksmith’s. I don’t remember any big details from when I was inside, but it has a cellar.” The house sat on the bank above the cove in the center of town, a wooden walkway leading past it, with stairs leading up to the house itself.

“Is it a good idea to live in a house that used to have a vampire in it?” Meghan looked at the house skeptically, if it wasn’t too bad inside, then ok, but she was going to do a deep clean on the place as soon as she could.

“Aslfur said the guards removed anything vampire related, so her coffin and hopefully the bloody bones from the cellar.” Meghan grimaced but followed her elven friend as she led the way. Sharon tried the door first, finding it locked surprisingly, and slid the key into the lock, twisting it until the door opened.

Inside they found a bit of a mess, things had been knocked to the ground, chairs were knocked over and one bed knocked crooked, like a fight had taken place in there.

“Well, at least there isn’t any blood.” Meghan frowned as she looked around the room, obviously no effort was given to cleaning up the mess, though the whole place looked to be neglected, spiderwebs and dust were thick in the room. There was a single and a double bed, so no one would have to sleep on the floor and they no longer had to be so crowded.

“I’ll get a fire going, if you guys want to get our stuff from the Inn?” Sharon rolled up her sleeves and moved toward the ash filled fireplace.

“How are you going to do that? We don’t have any matches.” Susan frowned as she started thinking about things they wouldn’t have, that they grew up with as the norm.

“There are still a few candles burning in here, I’ll use one of those to get it started.” Meghan nodded and started toward the door.

“Don’t burn the house down while we are gone.”

“Never have!” Susan chuckled and was almost skipping as they headed to the Inn. Jonna smiled at them when they entered and gave the table, she was at one last wipe with a rag.

“How did your meeting with the Jarl go?”

“We’ve got a house.” Susan smiled at the innkeeper who looked at the two in confusion and Meghan rolled her eyes at her friend.

“The Jarl gave us a house as a reward for warning her about the vampires. So, we’ve come to collect our things.” Jonna looked surprised for a moment, the frowned a little.

“Vampires? By the Eight that is a scary thought. Is the Jarl taking care of them?” Meghan nodded.

“Yeah, she is having the guards take care of everything right now.” Jonna looked around the otherwise empty Inn.

“Oh, well I am going to miss you three. You really livened up the place, we don’t get many visitors to Morthal.” Susan laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we will be returning for meals when we get tired of our own cooking, not to mention to help make lots and lots of soap.” Jonna laughed.

“In return, you three could earn the soap and perhaps some extra coin by chopping wood for me, Hroggar stopped doing it when he married Alva.” Susan grimaced a bit, but Meghan quickly darted into their room to grab their bags.

“That is something I hope the Jarl is going to talk to the people about, I really don’t want to start a panic by talking too much. Bye Jonna.” They left the innkeeper confused, but there really wasn’t much they could do, it was up to the Jarl to reveal to the town there was a vampire threat. They were passed by a group of guardsmen leaving the town, and they guessed that was the group in charge of taking out the vampires. When they got back to their house, Sharon had gotten a fire going in the stone fireplace and had started cleaning up the mess inside.

“Great, you’re back. I started up a list of things that are in here, so we can go through it and figure out what we have and what we will need. I also started heating some water for washing things.”

“Saw some guards leaving town, think they are after the vampires?” Sharon looked up from the books she was stacking on the table.

“Which way did they go?” Susan pointed in the general direction they had gone, towards the river. “If they went passed the Inn and the Mill, then they were headed toward the cave. I’m glad they are leaving in the day time, vampires are a lot weaker now.”

Meghan tossed their bags on the larger bed and started pulling things out to put away. There was a perfectly good upright dresser next to the bed, might as well use it. “What all have you checked and listed?”

“Just the stuff in sight right now, I haven’t gone through any of the chests or trunks yet, and I haven’t gone downstairs either.” Together they neatened the main room, listing down things they found with the stick of charcoal, and soon had everything straightened out and put away. The things that had been broken during the fight they put in a basket to throw away later, unless it was burnable, then it went into the fire. The house itself was sturdy, without any rodent holes that they could see, and the fireplace was well vented, preventing the room from getting overly smoky.

Unlike the Inn, the house had a wooden floor, with the cellar being all stone but for the ceiling, which would be better on their feet and belongings, and easier to clean. The trunks had an assortment of clothing that belonged to both Alva and Hroggar, along with some extra furs and blankets. They righted the chairs and moved the bed back into place. They had several good-sized pots they could use for cooking, and one big one they could use for washing. Books got piled up on the table, while other small items were sorted into similar piles on the beds. 

They tugged on the furs hanging on the walls, then decided to just leave them as is, they looked like deer hides, though one looked more like a large cat, the ones acting as rugs they moved further away from the fireplace and where they would be stepping off their beds in the morning. The room was well lit, with several stands holding horn candles, as well as the few on the table.

Meghan looked around the place that would now be their home, happy enough with it, though she really was going to miss having electricity, running water, heating and air conditioning, the internet. She sighed and looked to her friends, Sharon was picking through the vegetables that they had found, setting aside ones that looked too old to eat, and Susan was flipping through one of the books they had moved from above the fireplace.

“Hey, we still haven’t looked at that magic book we found, have we.” Sharon looked up and frowned. 

“No, we haven’t. Gosh, was that only yesterday?” Meghan rubbed her furred forehead, so much had happened in such a short time.

“What else was in that chest you found? I don’t really remember.” Susan reached for her pack and dumped its contents out on the bed.

“Some money, some shiny gems, and the book. How much money do we have now, anyway?” Susan looked over the money, then at Sharon as she pulled out a pouch, dumping its contents out on the bed as well. A quick count came up to 150 gold.

“Is that a lot? Is it not?” Sharon shrugged.

“It is a lot if you are buying food, but not if you are buying weapons and armor. I think we can earn this much in one day of chopping wood.”

“Is there anything else in here we could sell?” Susan looked around the house, though it didn’t look like there was anything worth selling.

“Unless we found a cache of gems, there probably isn’t anything worth much in here.” Slowly Sharon smiled, her friends getting a little worried. “I bet there are some good things in Movarth’s Lair.”

“What? Where is that, is that the vampire cave?” Both Meghan and Susan were looking at her like she was insane. “You aren’t suggesting we go into the vampire’s lair to look for treasure, are you?”

“It’s our best chance, the guards are probably not going to collect anything after they kill the vampires, wanting to come back to make sure they aren’t infected, and we can go in before they burn everything.”

“What if they don’t kill the vampires? What if they do burn everything?” Meghan asked.

“Then we are moving to Falkreth. Seriously though, as soon as the guards are done, and they have killed all the vampires, we need to get what we can from there.”

“What do you think we will find in there?”

“I’m only planning on going for money, gems, magic books if there are any, and any enchanted items we can find. They sell for more, and we can use them in learning enchanting.” Meghan and Susan looked at each other, worried about going near vampires, but also knowing they needed the money to survive. 

“Fine.” Meghan was reluctant, but they did need to get some money. “When are we going?”

“How about now? We hide out by the cave until the guards leave. If they leave running, then we know the vampires won, if they don’t come out in several hours, then the vampires won. If they come out and they are walking calmly, carrying their injured, then they won, and we go in after. I don’t want to spend more than 15 minutes in there, in case we get caught by the guards.” Meghan shuddered, then stretched as she stood.

“Alright, let’s get this over with. I’m bringing a sword.” Susan reached for her greatsword, grunting as she was too far away to reach. Sharon stood and tilted the sword in her direction until she could reach it.

“I’ll bring one of the packs, to put everything in. And this dagger.” She lifted a dagger off the table. It was longer than the ones they used to eat with, but not as long as the sword, Meghan almost wanted to call it a long knife, like a machete.

They were silent as they walked across Morthal and returned greetings with smiles and waves. Once out of sight of the mill, Sharon led them down a dirt path a ways, before leaving that to go into the trees and brush. After about 15 minutes of walking, the others started to see the ground ahead of them rose up into a hill. That is when Sharon crouched, and started moving more slowly.

“Ok, we are close to the cave. Let’s get low and watch the road.” The ground was cold, and slightly damp from the earlier fog, but they just wrapped tighter in their cloaks. For the first few minutes, there was shifting and moving rocks from under themselves, before the cold kept them from moving too much. The sky was overcast, which it had been since they arrived, and the gloom helped them blend in with their surroundings, as did the returning fog that smelled like the sea.

They were laying there for almost half an hour, Meghan’s ears twitching at every small noise and bird call, having tucked her twitching tail under her to keep it under control, when there was noise from ahead of them. They lay down more, peering through the brush toward the path that was about 30 feet in front of them. They all sighed quietly in relief when the first guard appeared, then the next. 

Out of the dozen or so guards that had left the town, it looked like only one was being carried on a litter, though they couldn’t tell if he was dead or injured. They let several minutes pass once they could no longer hear the guards, then Sharon led the way to the cave.

“Eww, this place reeks.” Meghan wrinkled her nose in disgust and brought a hand up to block the smell. Susan took some tentative sniffs but couldn’t smell anything too bad.

“Sorry, let’s get this over with.” Just inside the entrance, there were several snuffed out torches, and one that was still barely burning. Sharon got them lit, and handed one to each of her friends, hopefully they would provide enough light to see by. “Be careful and watch out for any vampires that might have been hiding.”

“This is looking more and more like a bad idea.” Meghan glared down at the cave they were entering but shrugged when Sharon looked at her. “Don’t worry, we are still doing this. But the first sign of a vampire—”

“We are leaving.” Sharon nodded. “I am not going to risk us on something stupid.”

Further into the cave, Meghan almost stormed out on principle, after she walked into a giant spiderweb, that got her so tangled, she had to be cut free by Sharon who was struggling to hold in her laughter. She assured them the guards killed the spiders, and once they came across the dead arachnids, Susan almost left too.

“Holy shit. You weren’t joking when you said giant spiders.” Susan cautiously reached her sword out and poked it, jumping back to watch it carefully, but it was still dead.

“The only good spider is a dead one.” Meghan shuddered and dodged around some webbing. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Yeah, I really don’t want to run into any of the other things I mentioned, especially the wolves.” They passed through a few tunnels, and a large pit full of corpses, surprisingly not smelling that bad, but that could be from the lack of blood, and the cool temperature of the cave. Finally, they passed into a large chamber with bodies and furniture laying everywhere. There were a few covered lanterns hanging, so there was some light, and Sharon snagged one of those. 

“Ok, look around the table, there should be some gold around there, but don’t touch any of the food, it is probably contaminated.” Susan stayed in the main chamber, collecting the gold and anything shiny she found, and swapped out her greatsword, for a large long handled hammer she found. Sharon pointed out the two tunnels that branched off the room, and Meghan took the one on the left, leaving the other to Sharon.

Meghan collected some potions she found, and a pair of boots, that made her hands tingle, and her fur stand on end a bit, carefully moving around the corpses she found. At first, they looked like normal people, but when she brought the torch closer, she could see how their faces looked more cadaverous, and their noses had some extra ridges, not to mention their teeth.

Sharon quickly moved through the tunnel, heading straight for the chest she knew was there in the game, and glancing around in case something else caught her eye. The chest held more gold and gems, along with a ring and necklace. The helmet she ignored, and headed next to the bookshelf, quickly opening the books to see what they were. A few history books she stuffed into the pack and a potion she spotted.

They met up in the main chamber, a quick assessment of their findings, a few daggers and another sword that Meghan had tied to her belt, Sharon had two bows slung over her shoulder, and Susan smiled as she hefted the warhammer onto her shoulder. They filled the pack with everything but the weapons, picked up their torches and headed out again.

~ ~ ~ 

“Ahhh, fresh air.” Meghan took several steps away from the cave and took in a deep breath, then frowned at the briny smell of the marsh around them.

“Let’s head back, but swing around and head upriver, coming into town from there will less suspicious.” Again, they trekked through the woods, Meghan zeroing in on the sounds of the river to keep them on track. No one stared at them as they crossed the river, and the older fisherman waved at them, and they waved back. Once inside their house, they relaxed and dropped their bags to the floor.

“Well, that wasn’t terrible.” Meghan admitted. “We did get some useful stuff.”

“Want to look over that spell book tomorrow? I think we should finish up in here and hang around in case the Jarl sends someone here.” Sharon looked around the room, then threw a few more pieces of wood on the fire. “Warm up at least. Looks like we are going to need some more wood soon too.”

“What all did we get? I found a lot of coins, and some weapons.” Susan dumped her pack out on the bed, soon followed by Sharon and Meghan’s packs.

“Books, must be Sharon’s, oooo shiny gems, jewelry, potions, and these weird boots.” Meghan picked up the boots, her fur standing on end again as her hand tingled.

“Why are they weird?” Susan looked them over, but they looked like ugly skin boots to her.

“They make my hand tingle, and my fur stand on end.” Sharon looked the boots over.

“Did you find those next to that big bed surrounded by shoes?” Meghan nodded. “Then I think those are Movarth’s boots, they are supposed to make you more sneaky, quieter.”

“Didn’t you say the vampire’s name was Movarth? Are these his boots?” Susan grimaced, and Meghan held the boots away from herself.

“Yeah, they are his boots.” Sharon waited a moment. “Do you think Movarth had a shoe fetish?”

Meghan grimaced again and dropped the boots into a basket. “Ok, those we are selling.”

Sharon laughed and tossed the necklaces and ring toward Meghan. “You can add these to the basket, the gems too.”

“What are these potions?” Sharon picked up a blue one.

“I am 75% sure this is a magicka potion.” Susan stared at her.

“Only 75%?”

“There is a chance it is a poison to drain magicka or stop you from regaining your magic.” Susan picked up the potions and went to put them in the basket. “We could ask the shop keepers what they are and keep the healing ones.”

Slowly Susan put the potions back down on the bed, not quite ready to trust them, and picked up one of the books. “Why so many books?”

“Some of those are histories of Skyrim, Nords, vampires, or the surrounding area. I’m hoping to find more so we all can learn more about this place. I really didn’t read the lore while playing the game, and some are just for reading, we will need something to pass the time, right?”

Susan nodded while Meghan sighed. “Bookworms.”

“How much money do we have now, before selling of course?” Sharon looked to Susan, who had been counting the gold earlier.

“With the 170 we found at the vampire hideout, 320.” Sharon nodded a bit.

“That’s good.” She lifted the two bags of gold and frowned. “In game the money didn’t weigh anything, but this is kinda heavy, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“What else do we need to check?” Meghan asked as she tossed another gem into the sell basket.

“How are our food supplies?” Susan looked around the room, and at the few baskets they’d filled with fruit and vegetables. “And what are we having for dinner?”

“How about veggie stew? We have some carrots and potatoes that need to get eaten up, and the bread can go with it.” Sharon looked to Meghan, who shrugged.

“We’ve missed lunch, but there are still several hours until dinner, that should give us enough time to cook something.” The Khajiit looked around the room, then picked up a blank book. “I think I’ll use this to start writing out menus and recipes. And grocery lists later on.”

Together they made up a list of chores that would have to be done daily, bringing in more water to wash with and boiling it since they couldn’t trust it to be clean, they were getting it from the river after all. Wood would have to be gathered and chopped, they made a tally of the candles they had left and what they could do with only the light from the fire. They would have to make food every day, since they didn’t have any way of storing their food in a cold enough area. Susan found a broom, and once they took a few sweeps of it, found it didn’t work as well as they hoped. 

Sharon wanted to get a garden started, if they were stuck, then it would be better that they grow their own food instead of buying it all the time, since they weren’t going out and finishing quests. Perhaps later they could look for fishing tackle and try and catch fish to add to their food stores.

While Meghan prepared a soup or stew for dinner, Susan collected the clothing they had found in the house, and started figuring out what items fit them, which ones they wanted to keep, and which ones would be turned into rags for washing.

“What should I do with the rest of these clothes? They are mostly things that don’t fit us.” Sharon looked at the pile of clothing Susan had in her arms, then tilted her head to the side.

“I could turn them into blankets, pull them apart then sew them back together again since I don’t have to worry about zippers or making it look pretty.” Her friends looked at her and Meghan nodded.

“Yeah, makes sense. I can do it too if I have too, but...” Sharon smiled at her Khajiit friend, they could leave the cooking and cleaning to her. Susan tossed her elf friend the clothing, then moved outside to bring in more wood from the small pile against the house.

Sharon slowly started picking apart a dress with her small knife, now thinking about home and her family, and the situation they were in. “If we are stuck here, what do you think we should do?”

Her friends looked over, then at each other.

“What do you mean by do? Farm, move, get help, curl up in a corner and cry?” Sharon pulled out a few more stitches.

“What should we do to make ends meet? We don’t really know how to farm, especially here, and becoming bounty hunters or fighters is almost impossible at the moment.”

“Live, I guess? We don’t know this world, you do. What is there that we could do?” Susan looked at her friends as she spoke, then Meghan turned to them.

“I’m going to take it one day at a time first and that is only if we are stuck here. Once it become obvious that we are here to stay, then I’ll decide what I need to do.” Meghan tossed the last carrot into the pot and Sharon nodded and went back to picking at stitches. As they puttered around the house, Sharon looked up again as Meghan collected the tops and ends of the veggies to boil into a stock for later.

“Taking it one day at a time is good, we could gather things and prepare for the long haul, but if we do get out then we are good.” The other two nodded and got back to their tasks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sharon woke up as Meghan bumped her in her sleep. Looking around the dark room, she figured it was still too early, and laid back down, but couldn’t get to sleep. She kept rolling their situation over in her head. Since they needed to sleep, and they didn’t just wake up seconds later, she was quite sure now they weren’t in a game, and this was their new reality.

_‘I have to keep them safe. I am the only one who knows the game, who knows Skyrim. And who knows what I don’t know. Like taxes, I was not expecting that. We will have to worry about the weather, being fed and warm, having enough money for taxes and expenses.’_ Sharon sighed and rolled over and stared at the wall of their house. _‘If there is a God listening, please keep us safe.’_


	4. Busy and Distracted

“Ugggg, this is too real to be a game. I’m sweaty, smelly, tired, my arms hurt, and I need something to drink.” Sharon lifted her braid up, trying to get some cool air to the back of her neck, as they walked back from the mill where they had been chopping wood. “I call dibs on first wash.”

Susan groaned and flapped her shirt to try and cool down. Meghan was panting, and earlier had laid down on the cold ground to try and cool down.

“It seems that Khajiit are a lot like cats, we can’t sweat.” Sharon looked over to her friend in concern, then tilted her head.

“Well, you modeled yourself after a caracal, so your longer ears will help you cool off faster, and you have shorter fur too.” Meghan nodded a bit, panting still, then deviated off the road toward the water. “What are you doing?”

“Cooling off.” With that, Meghan waded into the chilly water and dunked herself, popping back up with a gasp, ignorant of several townspeople who stared at her in surprise. “Holy shit, that’s cold.”

When Susan looked like she wanted to join her, Sharon pulled her back. “Don’t be a lemming. Come on, I’ll build up the fire and you help her get undressed.”

By the time they got back to the house, Meghan was huddling against Susan for warmth, while her friend took the chance to try and cool herself down with her frigid friend. Sharon tossed some dry clothes onto the large bed and helped Meghan out of her wet shoes while Susan wrestled with the tunic.

“You happy now?” Meghan smiled from under the nightshirt they chose to use as a towel.

“Totally worth it.” Sharon rolled her eyes at her friend but set the pot over the fire to heat up some soup, then went to the bucket and started cleaning up. “How much wood did we earn today?”

Susan laid the wet clothes out on the chairs she’d pulled closer to the fireplace, then pushed Meghan closer. “He said three armloads each, so nine armloads.”

“That’s good, that should double what we have. There are three things we need to get done today, collect the wood, gather some plants to sell, and wash the clothes. Who wants to do what?” Susan looked around at her friends.

“Well, since you know what plants can be gathered you can do that, and I can get the wood, so Meghan can play in the water.” Meghan mock glared at her tall friend but pulled the basket closer. They wanted to wash any remnant of Alva and Hroggar off the clothing before they wore it.

“Ok, sounds like a plan.” Sharon picked up a basket and headed out. “I won’t be too far from town, and I won’t go as far as the cave.”

“Ok.” Susan took the chance to wipe down as well, relieved to be cooler if not cleaner.

“I’ll get some more soap from Jonna, I don’t want to use the good stuff on our clothes.” Meghan let herself dry out a bit more as she waited for Susan to finish cleaning up, so they could at least walk together.

“What do you think of Sharon today?” Susan looked to her Khajiit friend in surprise.

“Um, was I supposed to notice something different?”

“You know how none of us can make up our minds on things, and here she is, leading the way on what to do.” Susan was quiet for a moment.

“Is that bad? Do you not want her to? She is the only one who really knows anything.” Meghan sighed.

“No, it’s not bad, but it seems she is pushing aside the fact that we are not in a game, and that we will never make it home.”

“So, she is ignoring the fact she’s in denial?”

“She’s not really in denial, I just think it hasn’t hit her yet. We should be ready when it does.”

“I don’t think it has hit any of us yet. Should we expect water works? She seems like she would do a lot of crying. Angry crying? How are you doing, by the way?” Meghan shrugged.

“I’m doing ok. The idea of ending up in another world, as another creature is awesome, and magic is real here. I will miss my family, and modern conveniences, but personally I think we got the better half of the deal. And I don’t think it will be angry crying.” Susan nodded a bit.

“Yeah, I’ll miss my mom and sisters, but I think I’ll miss the internet the most. No more Sherlock!” Susan fake cried for a second and Meghan laughed.

“You could write it and sell it here as your own.” Susan stopped and stared at Meghan, a large smile slowly starting to appear on her face. “Oh dear, what have I done?”

“I will be the author! It will happen how I want it to! Mwuhahahaha!” Meghan sighed a bit and stepped off to the side.

“Well, I have to get that soap, see you back at the house.” Susan continued toward the mill, giggling to herself. Looking at the hill just beyond the mill, Meghan could see Sharon picking some purple flower, then heading further toward the marsh. “Oh Gods, we need help.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sharon was quite happy with the amount of plants she found and picked. Having a suspicion about the Deathbell flowers, she wore gloves before carefully pinching the flower off the stem and into the basket. She’d broken several Fugal Pods, before she figured out how to slide her knife under the base and gently cut it loose. Sharon spotted several places where there were mud crabs and made sure to avoid those.

The Giant Lichen was interesting, and Sharon did a bit of a happy dance when she found a Nirnroot growing at the edge of the swamp. Watching some deer scatter further in the swamp reminded her that there were things out here that would eat her. Since her basket was half full, she decided to head back before she was eaten by a Frostbite spider. She’d been out there for an hour already, the quiet sounds of the forest soothing, yet foreign.

Looking back toward Morthal, Sharon thought about their situation. She liked Idgrod in game, seemed like a moral person, someone you could trust. But now that the three of them had come from another world and were tied in with the Dragonborn…If the Dragonborn could trust her to provide a distraction in the Thalmor Embassy, then perhaps they could trust her now. Just in case though, Sharon was going to put away a little cache of money, enough to get them away from Morthal and for the three of them to start again.

With a deep sigh, Sharon hefted her basket up into her arms, and headed back towards town. Deciding to focus now on the bathing schedule, and how they were going to get enough water inside and warmed for them to get decently clean.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meghan set her buckets down next to the river and stretched a little. It was warm in the sun, though the water was cold. From what she had seen around town, it seemed to be spring, with the fields having been planted already, though the trees around hadn’t started budding out yet. A splash from upstream caught her attention and she spotted another fish jump. If they could catch some, it could add to their food supplies.

Another splash, this time closer, and Meghan whipped around to face it, ears turned toward the sound. Carefully she stepped forward to the edge of the river, watching the water. A sleek figure moved under the water and Meghan darted forward, hand splashing down into the cold river, her clawed hand wrapping around a wriggling fish.

“Ha ha!” She grinned as she held the wriggling fish, the creature unable to escape with her claws digging into its body. Suddenly she realized what she had done, and quickly looked around. No one was really watching her or seemed to think her actions out of character. She dropped the fish in one of the buckets and filled the other with water. Lifting both she turned and headed back toward the house, as if nothing had happened.

With the water warmed to above freezing, and the clothing soaking in an empty barrel she’d set outside, Meghan sat back for a moment. She’d known that washing the clothes by hand would take a long time, and had recruited Susan to help, after her taller friend had finished bringing over the wood.

“Are we having fish for dinner?” Meghan startled and turned to face Susan, who had come from inside the house.

“What?” Her friend pointed at the gutted fish sticking out of a pot on the table. “Oh, yeah. I was thinking of sautéing it in butter, garlic and some salt. We have some of that at least.”

“Where did you get the fish?” Meghan scrambled for an answer.

“I caught it, in the bucket. When getting water for the laundry.” Susan hummed and gave the clothes another stir. “Well, time to rinse these out.”

Together they gathered up the wet clothes into a large basket, then dumped the barrel out, letting the water splash down into the cove. Meghan picked up the buckets and headed back to the river. Her plan was to get fresh water, and dump it on the clothes in the basket, while Susan agitated them, the water would leak through the basket, and the clothes should soon be rinsed. When she got back, Sharon was back as well, setting a basket down by the door as she joined them.

“Where are we at?” Meghan set the buckets down.

“Rising. I need someone to mix the clothes while I pour the water in.” Susan knelt next to the basket.

“I’ll do it.” Sharon nodded and started towards the house.

“I bought some rope, I’ll get it hung up as a clothes line. Inside or out?” Meghan looked around the side of the house. There was a tree not too far, they could tie to that and the eaves of the house.

“Outside for now, then they can finish inside tonight. Don’t want them to freeze. What else did you buy?”

“Nothing else, though I asked some questions about the town, what’s going on and stuff. Seems to be almost the same as the game. Lami, the store owner, is interested in ingredients, since she keeps using up hers in experimentation, so she was happy to see what I’d brought in.”

“So, the flowers are valuable?” Susan stirred the clothes as Meghan poured the water, soapy water escaping through the gaps in the basket.

“Not really, a few septims each, I spent most of what I got on the rope. But if anyone is interested in learning, Lami would be a good place to start for a teacher.” Sharon grabbed the rope from the basket and went around back to see where to tie it up. A thick branch from the tree made a good anchor, and she tied the other end to a section of roof awning that stuck out and wouldn’t let the rope slide off. 

She had to stand on some barrels to reach the roof, but the rope was high enough to keep the clothes from touching the ground. Just in time, as Meghan and Susan came around with the basket. Soon the three of them had everything hung to dry.

“Excuse me.” They turned to see one of the farmers standing nearby. “Do you live in this house?”

“Yes, we just moved in yesterday.”

“Hroggar let his chickens run loose, and they got into my field, started digging up my seedlings. If you could take them off my hands…” Sharon gasped in delight.

“Oh, yes of course we can take them. How many are there?”

“There are four, three hens and the rooster. I have them barricaded by the house right now.” Sharon nodded.

“Right let’s go get them.” Susan caught Sharon’s arm before she could follow the man.

“How are we going to bring them back? We don’t have any baskets with lids.”

“Just carry them upside down by the legs. We might get pecked at first, but they usually don’t draw blood, we can handle four chickens.” This time Meghan stopped her.

“Where are we going to put them? We don’t have a pen, and they’ll just end up in his field again.”

“How about the basement? There is that straw in there, and we can feed them the vegetables that are too old.” Meghan thought for a moment, then shrugged.

“Sounds good enough for me. Come on Susan, let’s go catch some chickens.” They followed the farmer across the bridge upstream from the cove, to one of the houses that had two fields next to it. There were chicken noises coming from an odd arrangement of twigs and branches, and Sharon realized it was a crude stick fence, one she decided to copy to keep the chickens penned in the future.

Right off the bat, it was obvious that the chickens did not like Meghan. They made such an uproar when she got close, that they all backed up until they calmed down. They didn’t react to Sharon, or Susan, but as soon as Meghan started forward, feathers went flying.

“Ok, Meghan, it looks like you can open the doors for us, cause these guys are not going to let you close.” The farmer scoffed a bit.

“Of course not, she’s a cat.” They stopped what they were doing to stare at the man. It wasn’t because of what he said, but how he said it, like she was something beneath him.

“Yes. I should have realized that.” Sharon spoke slowly, as if to a child, trying not to show her anger. “Of course, chickens would show fear in front of a predator.”

The man seemed to realize he’d said something wrong and wished them goodbye. Meghan led the way back to the house, with her friends carrying two upside-down chickens each.

“That gave me a flashback to that one day at the hotel, when that customer was rude to you.” Meghan turned to Susan, and Susan nodded in agreement, gratefully closing the door to the cellar. She’d never carried chickens before.

“Yeah, but that time it was aimed at me because I am Hispanic. This was at you because you are a Khajiit.”

“It will be like this all over Skyrim, but mostly in towns that are controlled by the Stormcloaks. They can’t actually throw us in jail for being another race, but they might make up some charges.” Sharon looked worried. “And I know they don’t let the Khajiit caravans into the city, so they might try to keep you out—”

“Sharon! Calm down. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, right now we are in a town that accepts us, so we don’t have to worry.” Meghan turned to her elf friend, who took a deep breath and let it out.

“Yeah, ok. I’m sorry. Just, everything seemed so overwhelming all of a sudden.” Susan sat down at the table.

“Is the racism really that bad?” Sharon slowly nodded.

“A common cry in the game was, “Skyrim belongs to the Nords!”. I think it mostly came from the Stormcloaks, they did seem to be the most racist. Ulfric Stormcloak…” She looked to her friends. “Have I told you this already?”

They shook their heads and Sharon sighed. “It is a long story, perhaps we should save it for tonight when the chores are done.”

Meghan continued neatening and cleaning the house, Susan decided to sell the items in the basket, and Sharon went out to start collecting sticks and branches to make an enclosure for the chickens. It would take several days or even a week to get everything collected and built, but it was something to do.

As the sun set, they all gathered around the table for dinner, another veggie stew with bread, the room only lit by a few candles to save them, and Sharon got into the story.

“There is a civil war going on. The Imperials, and the Stormcloaks. The Imperials are supported from the Emperor in Cyrodiil because Skyrim belongs to the Empire, and usually wear leather armor with red. Or armor with red and a black on red symbol that looks like a dragon, like on the cover of the game. The Stormcloaks usually wear chainmail armor with blue, their symbol is a white bear on blue, and are led by Ulfric Stormcloak who thinks they should be free from the powers of the Imperials, who have a truce/treaty with the Aldmeri Dominion, their agents in Skyrim are the Thalmor. They have a treaty because there was a war between them, the Aldmeri Dominion was winning, and the treaty, called the White Gold Concordant, was made to stop the fighting. One of the terms of the treaty was to stop the worship of Talos. The Nords worship Talos as a ninth God, and the Aldmeri Dominion doesn’t believe a former human could have become a God, and so there are only eight divines.”

“So, there are three different sides to this fight?” Sharon nodded.

“The Aldmeri Dominion are made up of mostly the High Elves, the Altmer, with some minions that are Wood Elves, or Khajiit. Ulfric challenged the High King here in Skyrim, and killed him, which would make him the next high king, but people said he cheated and murdered the king, so there are arguments over that too. Some of the cities and towns in the East are controlled by the Stormcloaks, while most over here in the West are Imperial. If Ulfric wins the war, the Thalmor could come in and start up the war again.”

“What’s a Thalmor, and are they bad?” Meghan asked, and Sharon sighed.

“The Thalmor. There usually are three or four of them traveling the roads in game. The leader of the group is the Justicar and wears black robes with silver accents. The others are soldiers and wear greenish gold metal armor, layered like leaves. Right now, they are going around trying to snuff out any Talos worship they find, and make sure everyone is keeping with the treaty. There is one stationed in Markarth, one in the College of Winterhold, a garrison in Solitude, and an embassy in the mountains above Solitude.” She looked to her friends.

“I really don’t want them to find out about us, three people falling from another world? We would be taken and interrogated faster than you can say Dragonborn.”

“Evil, got it.” Meghan nodded.

“So, if we see any elves dressed in robes, accompanied by elves in pointy green/gold armor, don’t draw attention to yourself.” Sharon nodded to Susan. “And hope that the Imperials win the war?”

“I supported the Stormcloaks in game, but since there wasn’t any racism, it didn’t matter that the Dragonborn was a Wood Elf and Thane of every Hold in Skyrim.”

“About the Dragonborn. What or who is that?” Susan looked to her elven friend. “I played the game once but didn’t get very far.”

Sharon smiled weakly. “The Dragonborn is the one person who can consume a dragon’s soul and prevent it from coming back to life. There is an angry dragon god who is trying to bring about the end of the world, and the Dragonborn is the only one who can defeat him.”

Susan dropped her head onto the table and groaned.

“So, who wants to learn magic?” Meghan and Susan stared at their elven friend, wasn’t she just telling them about the end of the world, and now she wanted to learn magic? Screw it.

“Sure.”

“How do we do that?” Sharon placed a book on the table, one with a flame looking symbol on the front.

“I’m not really sure, in game you just read it and you instantly knew it and the book disappeared. Here? I hope all three of us can read it, it won’t disappear, so we can spend time and actually learn magic.”

“What type of magic is it? Does the symbol mean anything?”

“It’s destruction magic, so it could be fire, lightning, or ice.” Sharon carefully opened the book, then read the first page when nothing happened.

“This is Sparks, the first of the Lightning spells.” Her friends crowded around to read the book. “Well, it didn’t disappear so let’s read.”

Meghan brought the candles closer and they read through the spell book until one burned out, with several chapters left to read. Meghan leaned back with a stretch and grimaced as her back popped.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.” Sharon put a feather in the book to mark their spot and closed it.

“Yeah.” Sharon said with a yawn and blinked at them. “Continue tomorrow?”

Susan nodded. “It’s interesting, though I don’t quite know what it means by sensing Aetherius around you.”

Meghan flopped down on the double bed effectively ending her part in the conversation. Susan moved to the single while Sharon banked the fire for the night. They’d decided Susan would get the single to herself since she was so much bigger than the other two, they would fit on the bigger bed better, and neither of them are cuddlers. Blowing out the last of the candles Sharon burrowed under her two blankets.

~ ~ ~ ~

Just after dawn as Meghan started prepping their breakfast over the fresh morning fire, which was actually easier to start with the spark rocks than they thought, Sharon started smashing up some grains she’d found in one of the sacks, to add to the vegetable ends and old bread she was going to feed to the chickens.

“Game plan for today?” Sharon glanced up at Susan, then around the room.

“I want to get the fence built so we can put the chickens out during the day, perhaps make some kind of shelter for them.” Sharon tilted her head at some of the barrels. “If we can get extra barrels, we can use those as nesting boxes, lay them down, put hay inside.”

Susan blinked. “How do you have all these ideas?”

“I think too much? That’s how my brain works?” Sharon put down the rock and poured the cracked grain into a bucket. “Down to feed the chickens.”

She came back up with five eggs that Meghan quickly snatched up, cracking them into the hot pan with the diced potatoes. Susan was sniffing at the cheese with a frown.

“Does this smell bad to you?” She held it out and Sharon leaned toward it, frowning then taking a piece off to taste.

“It’s hard and does taste a bit funny.” Going through the pile of clothes they were going to repurpose, she pulled out a linen shirt and started picking it apart. “Let’s wrap the rest up in cloth and put it in one of the barrels downstairs. It’s cooler and the chickens won’t be able to get to it.”

Susan put the cheese away with a grimace and moved to cut bread for breakfast, frowning when the knife made it crunch. “We should try selling some of the stuff from the cave, whatever weapons we don’t want.”

“That should get us some more money. Then do more magic, I really want to see this work.” Meghan let Susan scoop out a serving of potatoes and eggs onto her plate, then served herself. They were all a bit excited, who didn’t want to have magic when they were kids?

“Hey guys, tell me if you ever think I’m forgetting to tell you something, or if you have questions.”

“No problem.” Meghan and Susan said in unison, then Susan pointed a finger.

“Actually, where can we practice magic, you said the townspeople don’t like it.”

“I was thinking the swamps out back, away from town. That way of anything catches on fire, there is a lot of water to put it out.”

There was a knock on the door, so Sharon got up to open it, a little miffed she hadn’t gotten to start on her breakfast yet. A guardsman stood there and the bosmer had a brief rush of worry. “Hello.”

“Good morning. The Captain wants you over at the barracks once you’ve finished your meal. You are to be fitted for armor.”

“Oh, uh that’s quick. I wasn’t expecting anything until later. Thank you, Guardsman…”

“Aldin miss.”

“Guardsman Aldin. We’ll head over soon.” Aldin nodded and turned away, Sharon closing the door against the cold morning air.

“Armor today?” Meghan asked, half done with her breakfast. Sharon nodded and started on her food.

“Yeah. You guys have any preferences? I might go for some light armor.” Meghan and Susan looked at each other then back at Sharon.

“Light armor is…?”

“Here it is leather armor.” Sharon frowned. “Though some can have metal plates, studs, or chain mail added for more protection, like the studded armor. Then the heavy armor is a lot like plate armor, with less leather on it.”

“I guess we can let the Captain choose for us, since he knows the most.”

“Good idea.” Sharon sighed a bit in relief. She had no personal experience with armor, just game play, and that was nothing like real life.


	5. Training and Crabs

They stood nervously inside the barracks, stripped down to just shirts and trousers, which would count as what they would wear under the armor, and trying not to fidget too much as guards, all men, fit them for various types of armor. Susan’s was moving along well, she was getting a set of iron plate after the Captain had asked them their preferred weapon and fighting styles, but her two friends were having trouble. Both of them were shorter than most humans, Sharon extremely petite compared to the average Nord, and Meghan’s Khajiit features were causing a bit of confusion among the men.

All the guards in Morthal were human, so they had to alter the pieces, which meant it would be a while before they would get the armor. Until then, they will be spending 2-3 hours a day learning weapon skills.

“Wow, this stuff is heavier than it looks.” Captain Hrolth chuckled a bit as Susan shifted around, trying to get comfortable.

“You will have to get used to it, if you want it to save your life. Once it’s all done, we’ll have you running laps in it to build up your strength and stamina, then learning to fight in it.”

“You have it much easier than we do. Training to become a guard is harder and it takes months before we get onto patrols.” Meghan yelped and smacked the guard working on her armor.

“Watch the tail! Fuck that hurt!” The guard apologized, backing up as Meghan growled, ears laid back, tail wrapped around her legs.

“Will we pay you for the armor?” Sharon asked the Captain, hoping to draw her friend’s attention away from murdering the guard.

“No, the armor is part of your reward for warning us of the vampires.”

“Seems like a pretty big reward.” Susan steadied herself against a pole as the too small boot was yanked off her foot.

“I lost no men going against three vampires, and twice as many thralls in a dark cave, because of your information. We’ve been fighting off small attacks for years and losing men each time. This big of a blow to those monsters should put a stop to them.” Sharon watched as numbers were added to a scroll that she assumed held their armor details.

“Will the armor be made here? Or do you send it out?”

“The work will be sent to Solitude. We don’t have a leatherworker and the blacksmith is out of town, which is why you haven’t heard him at the forge.” Sharon hummed in acknowledgment as she pulled on her own boots. A blacksmith being next door to them was another one of the many differences between the game and now, even Lami’s was more of a general store instead of specializing in potions. 

“Ugg, my fur.” Meghan started rubbing down her arms and legs, smoothing down spots that had turned up under the armor or straps. She glared at the guard who’d stepped on her tail, flexing her hands, claws extending and retracting, before standing next to Sharon. Susan soon joined them, and the Captain dismissed them. They would start with the weapons later.

Since they had some time before lunch, they decided to go back and finish the Sparks book before picking up the chores of the day.

~ ~ ~ ~

Sharon frowned as she looked at her collection of sticks and branches. Some were crooked, some were old and rotten, and some were extremely dry, not what she was looking for to make a fence. Meghan was working with Lami and Susan was finishing the wood splitting, so Sharon decided to head over to the farmer who had given them the chickens and ask him for help. She found him enjoying a pipe by his field, digging tools next to him.

“Hello.” The man eyed her warily.

“Hello.”

“I was wondering about that little pen you’d made for the chickens, where did you get the materials for it?” The man pointed towards the river.

“That patch of willow there.” When he didn’t say anything else, Sharon smiled and waved goodbye.

“Okay, thank you.” The willows were upstream a bit and had just started to bud out with the spring weather. She cut an armload of long thing branched and carried them back to the house, then went back to get several thicker poles to act as the upright posts of the fence. She was going to weave the thin branches between the thicker ones, leaving gaps small enough the chickens won’t get out, and spacing the posts around two feet apart and see how it went.

By the time her friends got back, all the poles were laying on the ground next to where they’d go in, and she’d collected more thin branches to weave.

“Susan! I need your height.” She dragged her taller friend over to where the pen was going to be. “I want these poles to be shoulder height to me, but I wasn’t tall enough to pound them in, or shove them in deep enough to not fall over.”

Susan picked up one of the poles, it was about eye level to her with a sharp point on the bottom, then she placed it next to her elven friend. The pole would end up about a foot underground before it was down to the height Sharon wanted.

“What would I use to pound it in? A rock?” Sharon picked up the ax and tilted it until it was sideways.

“The flat or butt of this, but you might be able to push them in deep enough with just your strength.”

“Why are they so tall? And where did you find so many poles?” Meghan looked at the poles and the branches. “You are going to need a lot more willows.”

“Its to keep the chickens from flying over. There is a greatly thinned willow patch just up the river a ways, and I wasn’t planning on weaving them very tightly. Just enough to keep the chickens in, but once it gets to waist height, I was going to make bigger gaps to save on branches. If we use something like this for the garden, we’ll want to keep the deer out.”

“You sure this’ll work?” Susan looked at the pile of branches and poles, and the area chosen for the pen. It looked quite big for only four chickens.

“I hope so, but this is the first time I’ve made anything like this.” They all stared at the wood, then Sharon looked at the sky before heading to the house.

“It’s getting dark. Dinner anyone?” The others dropped the poles and followed her in.

“What do you guys think of the Sparks book? Did it make any sense to you?” Susan asked as she dropped the ax by the woodpile by the door. Meghan spun around with a grin and held up her hands. She focused on them for a moment, before a few sparks jumped between her fingers.

“Whoa!” Her friends crowded closer. “How did you do that?”

“I imagined the energy flowing from my body into my hands, and out where I wanted. I haven’t made anything besides small sparks though.”

“But it’s possible. You just proved we can learn magic.” Susan did a little victory dance while Sharon looked at her own hands.

“When should we start practicing? And when are we going to start weapons training with the guards? Will we have time for everything?”

Coming together they started comparing their schedules and decided an hour before lunch they would go out and practice magic in the swamp until they knew when they would start weapons training. While out, they would also collect any alchemy ingredients they found, and fallen branches to add to their firewood supply.

“Let’s eat at the Inn tonight, listen to what’s going on, who knows how often we can afford to eat out.” Meghan frowned as she looked around the house. “I want to get some recipes from Jonna, I want something a bit more than soup and stew.”

“Maybe she’ll have some meat to sell or trade, or something different than what we’ve been eating.” Sharon counted out some coins for their dinner, the put the purse back in the trunk.

Jonna waved to them when they entered and pointed to an open table. There were a few townspeople eating dinner, as well as the newly arrived carriage driver, which Jonna told them when she brought three plates to them. The meal that night was a piece of goat steak, a baked potato, and beans. They all chose cider to drink, since the well wasn’t cleared yet and it was cheaper. Meghan started talking to Jonna about recipes and other things they could eat and try. When the Innkeeper mentioned meat pies, Sharon popped in.

“What kinds of desserts do you have?” Jonna gestured at the bar, where there was a plate of glazed cakes.

“We have Sweet Rolls of course, fruit pies, Honey Nut treats that are quite nice, and Boiled Crème treats, but those I don’t make, they make my brother ill. In the fall we have Crostatas available as well.”

“Crostatas?” Susan asked and Jonna smiled.

“It’s like a berry pie without the top, one of my favorites, best with fresh picked berries.” All three of them moaned. They didn’t have anything dessert like at the house, and no fresh fruit, everything having been stored from the fall before.

“Have you made cookies?” Sharon asked, and Jonna sat back with a frown.

“Cookies, I haven’t heard of those.” Meghan eagerly leaned forward and started listing off ingredients. Sugar, flour, eggs, butter or lard, cinnamon in small amounts. She didn’t bother asking about baking soda or powder, but honey and molasses were all available.

“Cookies are usually round and crunchy, or soft. Like biscuits but sweet and can be made with lots of different things.”

“Perhaps we should get together and swap recipes sometime. The things from your homeland sound so interesting.” Just then, someone called for her and the Innkeeper left, not noticing the silence that had fallen over the table.

“It probably seems like we come from a strange land. Our names, the way we talk.” Susan snorted and nudged Sharon.

“Yeah, I’m sure they don’t have wow in their vocabulary.” Meghan smirked.

“Or vocabulary.” They all laughed, but it didn’t last very long. The mood of the evening dampened by the reminder of their situation.

“Live life one day at a time, see what comes.” Susan knocked back what was left of her cider. “And I want to learn magic.”

“Maybe we should visit the College of Winterhold sometime. They teach most of the schools of magic there, though I don’t know how much it would cost, we aren’t the dragonborn.” Meghan shrugged at Sharon.

“We’ll see how things go here I guess.” They finished their dinner, Sharon and Susan getting another potato before they felt full and headed back to the house in the dark. A crisp breeze was blowing from the South, so they weren’t smelling the swamp for once.

“Wow guys, look up.” Meghan and Susan looked, and joined their friend in staring in amazement at the night sky.

“I’ve never seen so many stars before.”

“And the two moons…”

“Yeah.”

They stood there in the middle of town for several minutes, just staring at the night sky, before a guard with a torch drew near and broke them out of it. The rest of the evening was quiet as they returned to the house and flipped through the Sparks book, then got ready for bed.

~ ~ ~ ~

That tree?” Susan pointed at a lone tree that stood at the edge of the water in the swamp. Sharon set an empty bucket down and looked back. They were out of sight of the town.

“Yeah that one will work. Let’s see if we can make sparks.” They flipped through the book, trying to focus like it said, and faced away from each other in case one of them did succeed. The hair on their arms started to stand on end, making Meghan look fluffed up like a startled cat even with her short fur, and her friends giggled making them all lose their concentration.

Meghan was the first one to get lightning to leave her hands, striking the ground a few feet in front of her with a crackle.

By the time they called an end to practice, they were all shaking out their arms from lingering tingles, but no one had hit the tree, and only Meghan had been able to get the sparks to leave their hands. Meghan tried to brush her fur down flat and had to resort to a full body shake while her friends started to look for alchemical ingredients and firewood.

A rock the Khajiit stepped on suddenly shifted and started clicking. She jumped back with a cry and was shocked to see the rock was actually the biggest crab she’d ever seen, the size of a basketball easily. It waved its huge claws then suddenly charged her.

“Mother fucker!” Jumping back again she threw out a hand, a jolt of lightning flying out and hitting the creature. It jumped and spun before collapsing, legs twitching.

“What happened?” Susan appeared at her side and Meghan pointed at the crab. “Whoa. Sharon!”

The Bosmer arrived and looked at the dead crab. “That is a small Mudcrab, they live along bodies of water.”

“Small? It’s huge!” They looked at their short friend with worry.

“The big ones are as big as a medium sized dog, but you can still outrun them.” Sharon picked up the creature from the back, avoiding the claws, and held it carefully. “Let’s get Jonna to show us how to clean and cook this. Fresh crab is amazing.”

Meghan drew her sword, keeping an eye out as they headed back to town, not trusting any of the rocks they passed, especially when she spotted a few with antennas.

“Hi Jonna, you busy?” The Innkeeper shook her head and eyed the mudcrab Sharon held.

“Not right now, what do you need?” Sharon lifted the mudcrab onto the bar.

“Can you show us how to clean and cook this? None of us have before.”

“Of course, Susan add another bucket of water to the caldron over the fire, we’ll need it boiling.” Jonna poked and looked over the crab. “How long has it been dead?”

“Only a few minutes. We stumbled across it on our way back from the swamp.”

“Well, they are best cooked alive, which is why they aren’t eaten that often. A good blast with a frost spell keeps them slow enough you can bind their claws and carry them. Keep that in mind if you are going to be eating them more often.” Jonna pulled a small sack from the shelf and moved to the cauldron Susan had just filled. “The simplest way to cook them is to boil them in salty water, almost as salty as the ocean, helps enhance the flavor. Some also add white wine or beer.”

Jonna poured the salt into the water then turned her hand to face the side of the cauldron, flames bursting from her palm to heat the large pot. She stopped for a moment and tossed more wood on the fire, flexing her hand before heating the pot again. She stopped with a sigh and the water was starting to bubble.

Once the water was boiling away, Jonna directed them to put the mudcrab in the pot, both Sharon and Meghan lifting the heavy creature to lower it into the half full pot.

“Now we keep the water boiling for half-an-hour before taking it out and letting it cool. I think I have a long hook or spoon around here somewhere.” Jonna looked around half-heartedly then sat down at a table, the girls joining her. “So, how did you kill it? It didn’t look crushed or stabbed.”

“It surprised me, so I hit it with a lightning spell.” Jonna laughed and clapped her hands.

“That’s exactly what my brother did when we were younger, the first time we saw a mudcrab. It had snuck up on him while he was busy concentrating and latched onto his robe. Dragged him through the mud before he was able to get lose and kill it.” The three friends smiled and relaxed a bit now that they had someone they could talk magic to.

“We’re learning Sparks, and coming from an upbringing without magic, its very strange to us.” Jonna gasped in surprise while Meghan and Susan stared at their short friend.

“No magic? Sound like you grew up with Nords.” Sharon laughed.

“Practically, that’s why we’re so excited to learn all the possibilities literally at our fingertips.” Jonna rested her elbow on the table.

“What did you three do back in your homeland?” They looked at each other and Meghan gestured for Sharon to go ahead, they’d take their cues from her.

“I worked sometimes at a lake, helping with boats, but mostly I lived with my parents, helping out at home. They’re getting old.” Sharon frowned a little as she thought about her family.

“I helped people find homes in the city, also helped my feeble mother. She’s worked so hard during her life, it’s aged her.” Meghan twitched a shoulder in a shrug.

“I worked at a market, at a food stand, trying to earn enough to help my family as well.” Susan frowned a little and looked over her friends, the mood dropping.

“Siblings? Lovers?” Sharon blinked rapidly as she took in a steadying breath.

“Three sisters. Three nephews, two nieces.” Meghan bumped her friend’s shoulder gently in support. While Susan sighed.

“Three sisters and my mom, and my cat.”

“Just my brother and mom, though I am an aunt of five.” Jonna looked them over carefully, then leaned forward with a gentle look on her face.

“You don’t think you’ll see them again, do you?” Sharon shook her head and smiled sadly.

“Probably not.”

“At least you have each other.” Susan gave a watery smile and threw her arms over her friends’ shoulders.

“My sisters from other mothers.” At Jonna’s shocked look, she laughed and clarified. “No relation by blood, but by choice.”

“Oh.” Jonna laughed and fortunately changed the subject to magic and what they were learning, and what they wanted to learn.

“What school of magic does your brother practice? Destruction? You said he used it on a mudcrab.” Jonna frowned and looked them over but sighed sadly.

“Conjuration is his focus. He was actually the Master of Conjuration at the College of Winterhold, but he didn’t get along with the Archmage, so we settled here.”

“Wow, the Master at the College?” Sharon looked at Jonna in awe. “That’s awesome, uh, amazing. We were talking about visiting the College someday.”

Jonna smiled and seemed to relax a bit. “Yes, he’s quite good, he also has many spell books from all schools of magic. That was quite the load to bring over.”

“Do you think he’d be willing to take on three new students to teach the basics to?” Jonna tapped on the table as she thought.

“You’d have to ask him that. He’s been getting some grief from the others in town so he might not be willing to. Give me some time to talk to him, try and convince him to think about it at least.”

“Thank you Jonna.” Meghan said, then sniffed the air, looking back at the cauldron.

“It still needs more time but why don’t you add some more wood to the fire, then help me make up some garlic butter.” Three heads spun to look at her.

“Ooo garlic butter.” Jonna laughed. Again, they’d spoken in unison. By the time the garlic was chopped and mixing with melting butter in a smaller pot, Jonna determined the crab done. With a long hook she picked up the mudcrab around the claw and carried the steaming red crustacean to a table.

“We’ll let this cool ‘til we can touch it, and I’ll show you how to clean it.” While they waited, Jonna would check the garlic butter, add more butter and garlic, until there was quite a bit simmering over the fire. Considering the size of the mudcrab though, the more the better.

“Alright.” Jonna flipped the mudcrab onto its back. “See this piece here, grab it by the front and pull it off.”

“Eww.” Susan pulled back as a piece the size of her hand came off the crab. Jonna tilted the body slightly and pointed at a gab.

“See this hole here, between the body and shell? Grab it here and pull off the shell.” Jonna pulled the body up, leaving the shell on the table as liquid spilled out of the body and collected in the shell.

“What’s the juice?” Meghan leaned forward and sniffed, but all she could smell was seafood.

“Juice from the crab, fat you can use in soup or to dip in, we’re going to mix it with the garlic butter.” Jonna flipped the crab over and they all pulled back when they saw the insides of the mudcrab for the first time.

“Gross.”

“Are those gills?” All three of them grimaced but couldn’t stop looking as Jonna moved around them and poured the “crab juice” into the butter.

“We remove these and the jaws then take this outside and rinse the guts out, they’ll wash right off.” Sure enough, the guts washed right out with a few buckets of cooled salt water they’d cooked the mudcrab in. No one seemed to care the guts were going right into the river, so they kept that in mind for the future.

“How have you girls eaten them before?”

“Crack the meat out of the legs and the shell, dip it in butter. I’ve had it chopped up in clam chowder, clam and potato soup.” Sharon looked to her friends who shrugged.

“Never really had crab before.” Sharon scoffed and followed Jonna inside.

“And you two lived on the coast.”

“Hey.” They protested half-heartedly, but they knew she was just teasing them. Back home they weren’t really fond of seafood, maybe here that’ll change.

Either their tastes had changed, or they’d never had a chance to enjoy fresh crab, the mudcrab they dipped in garlic butter was delicious, and even between the four of them, they were quite sated when it had been picked clean. Susan found it easy to crack the legs in her hand to get to the meat, and Meghan used her long claws to dig deep and get pieces that were harder to get. Jonna had brought some bread out as well, that she spread a soft cheese on for them to try, but they preferred dipping it into the garlic butter.

“Thank you Jonna. For showing us how to do this.” Jonna smiled.

“Thank you for sharing your spoils. I never had sisters, but I think this is how having them would feel.” They all smiled until Susan let out a belch, and they all laughed at the surprised look on her face.

“So, can we stop by now and then and learn some cooking tricks?” Meghan asked once they’d all caught their breath.

“Of course, and for soap and to just talk if you need to. I usually only have Lurbuk to keep me company.” They all grimaced and looked to the corner where the orc usually sat, but it was empty. Perhaps he’d gone outside to enjoy the nice Spring weather, and Jonna sighed.

“He fancies himself a bard, he was playing the other night and Thonnir told him to quit the racket. They got into an argument and Jorgen had to push them apart. The other patrons all told Lurbuk he was no good as a bard and to go to the Bard’s College in Solitude. He spent the rest of the night in his room.” She leaned close, as if worried he might hear her from where ever he was. “Thing is, he already graduated from the Bard’s College.”

“You sure they didn’t graduate him just to get rid of him?” Meghan asked and Jonna almost choked on her laughter.

“Oh my, that might be true.” Just then, Lurbuk entered the Inn, and they busied themselves cleaning up the crab mess.

“So Jonna, who would I talk to about getting plants to start a garden?” Sharon didn’t want there to be a silence and let Lurbuk think they were talking about him, so she grabbed the first thing that came to mind.

“Well, Balin might have some extra starts. He’s one of your neighbors, older Nord man.”

“Oh.” Sharon frowned. He was the one that gave them the chickens and wasn’t nice to Meghan. “He’s a bit of a jerk.”

“Jerk?” Meghan growled.

“Jackass.” Jonna still looked confused though she seemed to be getting the picture. “He talked down to me for being a “cat”.”

Jonna sighed. “Yes, there are those here that are less than understanding, but he is the best one to ask, unless you go to another town or village.”

Sharon sighed. “Yeah I know. Thanks again for lunch.”

“Bye girls.” They headed out the door just as Lurbuk started tapping his drum.


	6. Whiterun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to keep to a schedule, I have finals coming up, and am almost caught up with what I've written. Also, if anyone has any idea on how the Jarls tax their people, how much and how often, comment, cause I have no idea how it would be done. I'm making a lot of this up as I go. X(

Chapter 6

They did another round of laundry, this time Meghan’s so not to get fur all over theirs, hanging the clothes out in the afternoon sun, then had a quick wash themselves in the house. Their wood supply was good for several more days, so Sharon decided to ask Balin about plants or seeds, taking Susan with her. The man scowled at them from his garden as they approached, so they made sure to stop on their side of his fence. 

“Hello, Balin?” Sharon smiled at the scowling man.

“What do you want?”

“Jonna mentioned you might have some extra plants? We were wanting to start a garden of our own.”

“I don’t.” Sharon frowned in disappointment.

“Oh, that’s a pity. What do you do to the soil before you plant? Do you fertilize?”

“If you know enough to ask, why are you asking me?” Sharon smiled again.

“I’m used to the soil and weather from home. Is the soil well-draining? Are there—”

“I have no time to answer questions from some elf.”

“Okay, bye.” Sharon turned around and left, Susan catching up and leaning down to her.

“He’s an ass, why are we leaving?”

“Cause I don’t want to deal with him anymore. Instead we’ll just make a shopping trip to another town. We don’t have enough vegetables in the house to try and grow starts from those, except maybe the potatoes.” Sharon became thoughtful then Susan moved around in front of her.

“Shopping? Where? For what?” There was a bright gleam in the Nord’s eyes that had her smaller friend wary.

“Well, some basics of course. Food, household items, and seedlings if we can get them.” Susan deflated a bit. “I was thinking we could go to Solitude and sell the gems and things we have left. Should get us some spending money.”

“Would you go to Whiterun instead?” They both turned to see a young woman, the Jarl’s daughter Idgrod, standing on the wooden walkway, her hand on a young boy’s shoulder.

“Oh, you need something in Whiterun?”

“Just a letter delivered, its very important, and I’d make it worth your while.” Sharon turned to Susan who shrugged.

“How far away is Whiterun?”

“It takes most of the day by wagon. Solitude is much closer, so if you’d rather…”

“Would you feed our chickens for us? And collect the eggs? We can tell the Captain we’ll be gone for a few days but that shouldn’t matter.” Idgrod looked hopeful.

“You’d be willing to go so far out of your way? Thank you so much. Garrett drives the wagon between the cities, he’ll be by tomorrow if that’s not too soon?” The two friends shared a look.

“No, don’t think so. We’ll get ready to leave first thing tomorrow.”

~ ~ ~ ~

They shared the new plan with Meghan, who shrugged and started helping get things packed for the trip. They stacked several baskets together so they could carry their purchases, and added the things they could sell, including the enchanted boots.

They didn’t have any armor but were going to take the weapons they’d found for protection, and sell the extra, which they wrapped in a blanket and tied shut with rope. They were bringing apples, cheese and hard-boiled eggs to eat on the trip. Sharon lamenting the lack of a camera.

The next morning, they were up early, hauling their packs and things down to the small stable next to the Jarl’s longhouse, where Garrett waited for them, having arrived late last night. He hadn’t been out towards Whiterun for several weeks, so he wasn’t sure of its current condition, or how the weather was. They all piled into the wagon, cloaks wrapped warmly against the morning chill, and Garrett go the house moving.

~ ~ ~ ~

The road took them up towards Dragonbridge, but Garrett took the left fork to head south, and were almost to Rorikstead when the sun rose over the mountains. Sharon really wished she had a camera, or any type of artistic skill, because the sunrise over the valley was amazing, and she wanted to capture it somehow.

“Looks like its going to be clear today, that’s the best way to see the Whiterun valley for the first time. “Where are you from if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Far west, along the coast. How about you?” Sharon asked looking around at the surroundings.

“Rorikstead, born and raised.”

“When did you start driving people around?”

“My Uncle has a route between Whiterun and Riften, and he always had the most interesting stories, so I chose this instead of being a farmer.” Garrett leaned forward as he squinted down the road and sat back. Sharon looked as well and spotted the distinct robes and armor of a Thalmor patrol.

“Meghan, what kinds of plants do you think we should get?” She leaned forward and whispered to her friends. “Talk about boring stuff, Thalmor ahead.”

Meghan led the conversation suggesting several plants they would be able to cook later, then moved on to meals they could make with what they had. They talked until the patrol of four was out of sight for several minutes before they relaxed, and Susan turned to her elven friend.

“Were those the Thalmor you were talking about? The high elves?” Sharon nodded, still feeling a bit shaky from the adrenaline.

“Yeah, the Altmer. They are called Justiciars, and have mages and soldiers, usually in groups of three or four that I know of. They think they are top dog and everyone else is beneath them.” Conversation died off after that, Garrett pointing out interesting spots or sights now and then, but mostly they napped as the rising sun slowly warmed them. They stopped in Rorikstead still early in the morning, with no one to pick up the stop was short. Garrett pointed out the house where he grew up, though his family had recently moved to a farm closer to Whiterun.

About 2 hours outside of Rorikstead, they spotted birds circling ahead of them, and the horse began nervously tossing its head as the faint scent of smoke reached them. Sharon pulled out the bow she’d brought and strung it, placing the quiver close by and making her friends pull out their weapons.

“What’s going on?” Meghan asked, then laid her ears back as the wind blew the scent of smoke and burnt meat towards them. “Shit, something is on fire up there.”

Garrett urged the horse on faster, and the three held on as the wagon picked up speed. They came around a corner and were able to look ahead as the road dropped down the hill. There were two bodies in the road, and several bushes were smoking, piles of ash and sticks showing where more foliage had burned away.

“Oh man.” Sharon grimaced, her skin crawling as she saw the bodies, their ratty armor covered in blood and scorch marks. “They might have attacked the Thalmor from earlier.”

“At least they’re no longer around to bother us.” Meghan said as Garrett urged the balking horse on, eager to get away from the scent of death and fire.

“I’ll need to report this to the Guard Captain once we reach Whiterun.”

Only once the smell was completely gone and they could no longer see any smoke, did Sharon unstring the bow, the others releasing their tight grips on their weapons, still twitchy with the remnants of adrenaline. 

“Is that it? Is that Whiterun?” Susan pointed at the city and Garrett nodded, everyone in the wagon relaxing after Susan’s sudden pointing had startled them.

“Yes, you can see the palace from here, all the way at the top of the hill. It’s called Dragonsreach, that’s where the great hero Olaf One-eye captured a dragon. Its skull is inside the palace now.”

“They captured a dragon?” Meghan squinted at the distant city. “How? Dragons can breathe fire and the place looks like it is made out of wood.”

“How long until we reach the city?” Sharon asked.

“Just a few hours, we are very close.” Traffic along the road picked up as well, the closer they got to the city, they started seeing more people walking ahead of them, as well as several wagons and had to slow down.

They passed the first few farms around the city at a slow walk, people busy in the fields digging trenches from what they could tell, while children ran with long sticks along the rows of young crops chasing off crows.

“Oh, the Thane is in the city.” They looked around but had no idea what Garrett was talking about.

“How do you know?” Garrett pointed towards a pole above the pass under the wall that had two flags on it.

“The larger white gold banner at the top is Whiterun’s, with the horse, the lower gold and black banner is the Thane’s and is only up when he’s in residence.” Sharon studied the flag for a moment.

“Is the Thane important? We don’t have them back home.” Garrett nodded.

Yes, you can’t see it yet, but the banner has a dragon on it. The Thane is the dragonborn.”

“Oh, I’ve heard songs about the Dragonborn, what’s he like?” Garrett shrugged as he looked back at the Bosmer.

“There isn’t much known actually. All anyone knows is he came to warn the Jarl of the dragon he saw destroy Helgen, then he helped kill one at the damaged watch tower we passed. That’s when they realized he was Dragonborn, when he took the dragon’s soul.”

“When did that happen?” Susan asked, the watchtower looked like repairs has started, though it wasn’t finished.

“Sun’s Dusk of last year.” Susan looked at Sharon, who shrugged, she didn’t know how long ago that was either. Garrett focused on getting through the crowd to the city, having to move around stopped wagons and carts, and trying not to run over the chickens or goats that were constantly running in front of them.

“How big was the dragon? Did it breathe fire?” Meghan asked and Garrett laughed.

“With each story it gets bigger and bigger, but the skull seemed to be close to the same size as the one in Dragonsreach, and it was a firebreather.” They all shuddered, remembering their own encounter with the dragons, which could have eaten them.

Finally, they reached the outer wall of the city, the sun high and bright in the sky, and Garrett directed the wagon into a yard with several wagons and horses. A sign depicting a horse’s head hung from the wooden building close by. The roof was thatched just like the ones in Morthal.

“There you are, Whiterun.” Sharon turned to their driver.

“We have some errands to take care of, that might take the rest of the day. Could you take us back to Morthal tomorrow?” Garrett nodded and Sharon felt herself relax. “Thank you. We might not be as early as this morning but should be ready to leave before noon.”

With the promise of a return ride, they gathered their things and joined the crowd heading towards the city.

“Susan, tell me if you see a group of Khajiit camped by the walls, Meghan should ask them if they have any spare combs or brushes.” Sharon was not used to being short and felt like a child in the crowd. The others must not have felt very comfortable either, since they all had a grip on each other to not get separated. They plodded along slowly with the crowd before Susan started steering them off to the side.

“Found them, is it normal for them to be ignored like this?” The crowd pushed along but kept a wary distance from the group of Khajiit. Sharon sighed.

“Yeah, unfortunately. People are jerks.” After some nudging and pushing, they came out of the crowd in front of the main tent made from a patchwork of skins from various animals. They gray Khajiit sitting on the rug looked them over curiously.

“This one welcomes you, it is good to see a cousin so far from home.” Sharon looked at the other Khajiit, who were all looking at Meghan, and inwardly groaned. Her friend stuck out among the other Khajiit, most of them had dark fur or markings, or longer manes around their faces. They all looked able to handle cooler weather, while Meghan looked like she was from the desert. “How can this one be of assistance?”

“I need combs or brushes; do you have any?” The Khajiit blinked at Meghan and his ears flicked back for a moment.

“Yes, let this one get them out.” He moved into the tent, then returned with a bundle in hand. He laid them out on the rug in front of him in sets, showing off the different materials and designs of each. Meghan’s ears twitched back and forth as she looked them over, before reaching for a white comb with matching brush. 

“Elk antler, with bristles from elk as well.” She rubbed a thumb over the teeth of the comb, the over the brush.

“This will work, how much?”

“50 septims for the pair.” Sharon dug out a gold necklace.

“Could we trade the brushes for the necklace?” The Khajiit took the necklace and examined it, before nodding.

“This is a good trade. May your road lead you to warm sands.”

Meghan wrapped the items up and put them in Sharon’s pack, then they rejoined the crowd entering Whiterun, not getting jostled too much once people noticed Meghan. Sharon looked around the best she could, comparing the game Whiterun to this one was like seeing your hometown 50-100 years ago vs modern time, some things were the same, but lots were different. They first stopped at the blacksmith near the gate to sell the extra weapons, Meghan sneezing from the smell of hot iron and coal. They got quite a bit for the swords, the blacksmith mentioning how short they were because of the war.

Their next stop was going to be Danica at the Temple of Kynareth, but the dead tree Sharon tried to use as a landmark was missing and they ended up stopping in front of the steps leading up to Dragonsreach and the cloud district. The priest of Talos yelling his sermon to anyone that would listen.

“That place looks like a temple, and there is a small tree in the middle of the square.” Susan pointed out a building so Sharon climbed a few steps until she could see over the crowd.

“Yep, that’s it. Let’s get in there before this guy starts yelling at me for being an elf.” Stepping into the temple and closing the door was like stepping into a sound proof room, the noises from the crowd completely vanished. There seemed to be some light music playing, or windchimes, and the floor was made up into a mosaic of stone and light blue tiles.

“How can we assist you this day?” Sharon turned to the dark-haired priest in tan robes.

“We have a delivery for Danica.” He nodded and led them to a small alcove where a hooded robed figure sat at a desk, writing in a book.

“Danica, these three have a delivery for you.” Danica looked up, revealing a middle-aged human woman with short dark hair. She looked between the three of them for a moment then nodded to the man.

“Thank you Jenssen.” The man nodded and returned to the main room of the temple as Sharon pulled the letter out of her pocket.

“Here to deliver a letter from Idgrod the Younger.” Danica accepted the letter and read through it quickly.

“I see. If you would wait for a moment.” She read the letter again, then stood and moved to a cupboard where she pulled out a small wooden box containing 12 small potions. “This is for Idgrod, and this is for your trouble.”

She handed them a coin purse which Sharon accepted as Susan accepted the box. “Thank you.”

“Go with Kynareth’s blessing children.” Meghan led the way to the door and pushed it open, ears flattening from the noise.

“Where to now?” Sharon looked around, then at her friends.

“Let’s get a room where we can put that safely away, then get rid of the other stuff. Then we can tour the city.” The last she said with a smile, this was going to be as new and exciting for her as for her friends.

They moved down a set of stairs into more crowds until Sharon forced her way to a well that stood in the center of the square, which she climbed onto to get a better view around. Thankfully most everything was the same. The Inn, the Alchemist’s, the Drunken Huntsman and the merchant’s place were all in the same spots, the Inn and the Huntsman were much bigger and there were more vendor stalls around the larger square, with more homes near the walls.

“Come on, the Inn is in the same spot in game, and looks like it has more rooms than before. We may be in luck.” Once they’d made it through the crowd and into the Inn, Sharon was glad to see a less crowded space. She led the way across the room to the bar where a vaguely familiar woman stood.

“Welcome to the Bannered Mare. How can I help you three?”

“We’d like a room please, and lunch?” The last she asked of her friends, who nodded eagerly. “And lunch if it is still available.”

“Just the one room for the three of you?” Sharon nodded and the woman sighed. “You’ll be getting my biggest room, twenty septims for the day, and two septims each for lunch, drinks are extra.”

Sharon counted out the coins and dropped them into the Innkeepers hand, receiving three small wooded tokens and a key in return. “Thank you miss…”

“Hulda, I’m the Innkeeper here. Give the tokens to Olfina or me to receive your meals, your room is up those stairs and the only door on the right.” They thanked her again and hauled their things up to the room, which had a double bed and floor space for them to lay out a bedroll. Instead of the usual lone room up the stairs, there were two more doors down a short hallway. After dropping their things Sharon looked around the room, practically the same as in game with the bed, end tables, and dresser, though there now was a door between the room and the balcony overlooking the main room of the Inn.

The bed looked comfortable, and a quick poke at the pillows showed they weren’t stuffed with straw like the ones in Morthal, but with what felt like wool. Another difference from the game were the sheep, they’d passed fields containing them and goats alike.

“Man, I’m starving, let’s eat them make money, then have the tour.” Susan stretched a bit, relieved to not be carrying anything. Downstairs Sharon didn’t see Olfina, and if she was the one working then someone must have already dealt with the Redguard woman.

Hulda gave them each a shallow bowl filled with stew, and a good-sized roll to go with it. The three of them stuck with water to save money, and people watched while they ate. Though after seeing the condition of some of the utensils, Sharon thought it best they should start traveling with their own from now on. Most everyone in the Bannered Mare was some variety of human, though there was one group in the corner that had an Argonian with them. Judging by the large packs at their feet, and the armor some of them were wearing, they looked to be traveling merchants with body guards. Sharon was looking forward to seeing more non-humans in the city.

Stepping outside the Inn, Sharon was glad it stood above the rest of the square so she could spot the store they were going to next and pointed it out to her friends. Just making their way across was an adventure, though people did try to avoid Meghan, Sharon was just too short and got bumped into a lot. She did spot a few elves here and there, none of them high elves, and another Argonian. They followed a man into the shop, the man behind the counter introducing himself as Belethor. Meghan detoured off to the left, looking at cooking utensils as the first customer dropped a bag onto the counter, so Sharon followed her Khajiit friend.

“Do come back.” Belethor turned to them as the man left, thankfully they hadn’t had too much time to look around and actually want something. “How can I help three lovely ladies on this fine day?”

Susan pulled the enchanted boots out of the basket, along with two gems. “Well, what do we have here?”

The man lifted the boots, flexing one hand when he felt the enchantment, and tugged at the material, testing the durability.

“These are some fine boots you have here. What is the enchantment?” Sharon spoke up.

“Your steps are quieter, helpful when hunting.” Belethor glanced at Meghan, who raised an eyebrow in question.

“What? They don’t fit any of us.”

“Hunting, yes. I’ll give you 300 for the boots, 45 for the amethyst, and 40 for the garnet.” Belethor counted the coins into a bag, then wrote up a receipt on a scrap of parchment. “This way we both have a history of the transaction.”

Sharon pocketed the heavy purse and gave her thanks to the man.

“Do come back.” Once outside, Susan turned to the others.

“I couldn’t find the jewelry.” Sharon tugged on her pack, indicating they were with her and her Nord friend relaxed.

“I wanted to sell them elsewhere so no one person thinks we’re loaded.” She pointed at an old woman at a stall. “She sells jewelry, we can sell to her.”

Fralia was happy to buy the jewelry and they got 91 septims for the two necklaces and rings.

“So, what do you know of this place?” Meghan asked as they headed towards the gates, deciding to start exploring from there.

“Jarl Balgruuf is the Jarl here, he’s been keeping the city neutral in the war for as long as he can despite the threats from Ulfric Stormcloak and the other dude.” Susan laughed.

“Other dude?” Sharon frowned as she tried to remember.

“Tullius, General Tullius. The Jarl has three…” She quickly glanced around and lowered her voice. “Three brat children. His housecarl, his bodyguard, is a Dunmer woman, a dark elf.”

She pointed at a building in front of them that had a sign of a frothy bear keg. “The Drunken Huntsman is owned by two Bosmer brothers, one runs the shop while the other hunts and sells the meat. There are two temples here, Kynareth and Arkay. There is a statue of Talos here, so a mini shrine that has the yelling priest guy. The Companions are a group of talented warriors that sell their services, like nice mercenaries. They have a Dunmer among them and several women, which is awesome. Huh, went on a non-human tangent there.”

Meghan laughed when Sharon stopped to think. “Sure you’re not leaving anything out?”

“Several beggars live on the street, the Gray-mane and the Battle-born families have a feud with each other.” Sharon looked around again. They were by the blacksmith and she was hammering at a piece of metal. She leaned closer to her friends. “Five of the Companions are werewolves.”

Meghan’s eyes widened. “Are werewolves good or bad?”

“The Companions are alright, any other one you meet is not, best to avoid.” They nodded and Sharon looked around, pointing at the two roads that led away from the gate. “So, head up the way we’ve already been, or start through the residential section?”

“New stuff first.” Susan said and Meghan nodded in agreement.

“Okay. The blacksmith here is Adrianne. Her father is the steward up at Dragonsreach, she is married, and one of two blacksmiths in Whiterun.” The Bosmer pointed at the Drunken Huntsman. “Drunken Huntsman, I think it is a tavern?”

“Could be why it’s called drunken.” Susan said and Sharon smiled.

“They were drunk while hunting and one brother shot the other in the ass, that’s why they call it that.” The other two girls burst out laughing, briefly drawing the attention of a nearby guardsman. “To our left here is a building I never interacted with, so I don’t know what it is.”

“Meghan gave a fake gasp. “What? Something you don’t know in Skyrim? I’m shocked.”

Sharon smiled for a moment but sobered quickly. “That is what scared me, there is so much I don’t know to keep us safe here.”

“Let’s worry about that later. For now, tell us what you know so we can help keep ourselves safe.” Sharon looked at Susan, then Meghan who nodded.

“Okay. Up these stairs is a district I can’t remember the name of, and this part of it is mainly residential. The city is broken up into several districts though the only one I can remember is the cloud district where the Jarl lives. If we keep to the main road, we shouldn’t get lost.” They made their way up the smooth stone steps, looking at the subtle differences between the wooden homes.

Sharon described the feud between the Battle-borns and Gray-manes, with a bit of a Romeo and Juliet romance going on behind the parents’ backs. She showed them the Temple of Arkay, the god of death birth and funerals, which also held the city catacombs, and they took a walk along the wall, enjoying the view of the valley in the late afternoon sun.

They dropped back down and crossed over to the square in front of the Temple of Kynareth, Meghan able to pick up the voice of the priest yelling about Talos over the noise of the hustle and bustle.

“Up those stairs towards the upside-down boat is where the Companions live and train, Jorrvasker. Just above them is the Skyforge, the stone bird up there, which they believe was here before Whiterun existed, and where the best blacksmith in Skyrim works. He forges weapons from Skyforge steel, probably made stronger by some magical means via the forge, and up this grand staircase here Dragonsreach, the home of the Jarl.”

“How much different is this place from the game?” Meghan asked, glaring at the loud priest.

“Three times bigger at least. The amount of people walking around is closer to ESO than Skyrim.” The Bosmer sighed. “It’s what the city probably would have looked like if it was real.”

“And smells like, do I want to know what they do without indoor plumbing? I also see no outhouses.” Sharon grimaced.

“You already know what they do instead, and they probably dump everything into the creek. That’s why we boil water.” Meghan and Susan gagged.

“I hate medieval societies.”

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own anything from Skyrim. This is just for fun. If you don't like it, then just exit without leaving comment, if you have any helpful suggestions or comments, feel free. If they are rude or offensive, they will be deleted and ignored.


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